House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is eyeing at least four states for potential new congressional maps ahead of the 2028 elections to counter an expected round of new Republican gerrymanders after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.
“All options are on the table as we get through the 2026 election and look to the future,” Jeffries told POLITICO by phone Thursday. “As many governors have already indicated, we will be prepared to respond in states like New York, Illinois and Maryland, as well as in Colorado, in advance of the 2028 election.”
His comments come as Republicans gear up to redraw congressional maps across the South to erase Black- and Hispanic-majority districts that had previously been protected by the Voting Rights Act. Already, lawmakers in Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee are pushing for new maps, though timing is still up in the air.
The Supreme Court decision has given Republicans a big opportunity to gerrymander more seats as they look to keep House control. But Jeffries insisted Republicans’ options for redraws before the midterms are limited given the calendar. And he stressed that Democrats would be aggressive in their counterefforts.
“Republicans have concluded that they need to cheat to win, and the Supreme Court conservatives have decided to aid and abet their scheme. Democrats are going to fight back with every tool available,” Jeffries said.
Some Democrats in the immediate aftermath of the Callais ruling raised the possibility of diluting majority-minority districts to help draw more seats favoring Democrats — even in states like California, where the party already stands to gain up to five seats after voters approved a new congressional map last fall.
Jeffries didn’t give a direct answer when asked whether blue states should look to split up those seats to draw more Democratic-leaning seats overall.
“We’re looking at every opportunity to ensure that communities of color will continue to have the chance to elect the candidate of their choice in districts that have traditionally been covered by the Voting Rights Act,” he said, “while at the same time doing what is necessary, as occurred in California, to decisively respond to efforts by Republicans to gerrymander congressional maps.”
Democratic governors in several of the states Jeffries highlighted for potential new maps slammed the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights act on Wednesday. Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to plow ahead with efforts to redraw New York’s maps ahead of 2028. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, whose effort to draw out the sole Republican representing his state in the 2026 election flamed out this year, said in a statement that “until we have national redistricting reform, every state should stay part of the conversation.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the ruling “voter suppression that will silence Black and brown voters,” adding that “the magnitude of this decision cannot be understated.”
Meanwhile, in Colorado, Democrats are already pushing a ballot measure this year that would pave the way for a new map for 2028.
Jeffries has worked with governors in several of those states to try to advance new maps to mixed success. He declined to share details of any private conversations with those blue-state leaders over the past 24 hours, but said he had previously “been in contact with many of the state leaders in those places” and would remain “intimately involved” in their efforts.
“In the same way that House Democrats completely defied expectations as it relates to stopping the Republican effort to rig the midterm elections … we will respond forcefully, creatively and decisively in order to ensure that there will be free and fair elections moving forward into the future,” Jeffries said.
That may be easier said than done: In the handful of Democratic states where more aggressive gerrymanders are possible, Black, Hispanic and Asian American voters who represent a large chunk of the Democratic base may not be eager for their party’s leaders to dismantle majority-minority seats. That was already evident when Illinois Democrats considered a redraw last year; many state lawmakers were concerned about Black representation, and the effort ultimately did not move forward.
Even with a theoretical path to redraw, there are often political obstacles that get in the way. Moore and Jeffries lobbied lawmakers in Maryland to get on board last year, but were stymied by the Democratic Senate leader. And in Indiana, immense pressure from Trump and his inner circle ultimately failed to convince GOP lawmakers there to redraw. Other efforts may face similar fates.
Still, Democrats’ rhetoric after Callais marks a continuation of their dramatic shift on gerrymandering in the last year. While the party says it would still back reforms if it reclaims control of Washington after 2028, they are unabashedly supporting gerrymandered maps in the interim.
“At no point can we sit idly by and allow Republicans to redraw across the country,” National Democratic Redistricting Committee president John Bisognano said. “We are about to see … a monumental number of redraws, and we are prepared to combat those redraws in places where we can.
Bisognano pointed to Washington, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and Colorado as potential states Democrats could redraw.
In October, a pair of Democratic-aligned civil rights groups laid out 19 seats across the country that Republicans could target with a severely weakened VRA. It’s a maximalist calculation, but one that they fear could lock in GOP control of Congress.
Jeffries argued Republicans' options for further redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms are limited.
Primary ballots have already gone out in most southern states save for Tennessee. But Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry appears to be forging ahead, reportedly planning to suspend next month’s primary election to give state lawmakers a chance to pass a new map.
As it stands, Republicans currently have a narrow edge in the mid-decade redistricting wars, thanks to Florida passing a map with four potential GOP pickups on Wednesday. The rush to redistrict was kicked off by President Donald Trump last summer, when at his behest Texas redrew its map to give Republicans an edge in as many as five more House seats.
Democrats, once thought to have few options to respond, have mounted a surprising comeback with gerrymanders in California and Virginia that were passed by voters. Virginia’s effort is still pending approval from the state Supreme Court. And the party is poised to pick up a seat in Utah.
The limited Republican gains so far are likely not enough to stave off an unfavorable midterm environment, especially as Trump and the GOP continue to slip in polls as cost-of-living issues drag them down.
Jeffries argued Republicans won’t pick up all of the seats in Texas and Florida that they’re aiming for. And he remained bullish that Democrats could retake the House this fall.
“You can mathematically and surgically look at what has happened with the Republican gerrymandering and the Democratic response, and see they’re in a hole,” Jeffries said of Republicans, one “that the Callais decision, even if they move in Louisiana, will never be able to pull them out of, at this point in time.”
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