Republicans got some sudden and unexpected bad news Tuesday when a three-judge federal court blocked Texas from using its new GOP-drawn congressional districts. Our new Digest examines why a Trump appointee made this momentous ruling and what it does—and doesn't—mean for the redistricting wars.

In response to the TX ruling, Dem Rep. Lloyd Doggett says that "I have a renewed opportunity to continue serving the only town I have ever called home." Doggett had announced his retirement rather than face an incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary against Greg Casar.

Whoa: A federal court just barred Texas from using its new congressional map, drawn by the GOP to target Dems. "Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map." Court says the old map must be used in 2026. Appeals are certain. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Court ruled the TX gerrymander is illegal in part bc it was spurred by a letter from Trump's DOJ that demanded a redrawing for explicitly racial reasons. (First 2 images.) @mcpli.bsky.social had told Bolts of DOJ letter: "starts to look a lot like intentional racial discrimination." (3rd image)

Where things stand right now in states that have drawn new maps: • TX: Blocked by court (+5 R max) • MO: Likely to be blocked by referendum (+1 R) • NC: +1 R at most, could be zero • OH: Up to +2 R, could be zero • CA: Likely +5 Dem • UT: +1 Dem Other new maps could also emerge.

The mechanics of gerrymandering are pretty complicated, as are the "natural" biases that exist in different states. These biases can shift dramatically depending on the exact granularity of seats (e.g. does each seat have 50k, 100k, 500k, 800k, 1M seats).

This is the strength of our city. We’ll honor the trust these families put in us by making this a place where they can thrive.

It’s entirely possible that, just as John Paul II is remembered for standing up to authoritarian regimes in the East, Leo will be remembered for standing up to authoritarian threats in the West.

I’m still struggling with the fact that ICE “brown shirts” went to a taco shop and thought they would get served. F that!

Both parties should support this. Using AI to generate a video of a candidate saying something he didn’t say should be illegal. Especially since many voters think it is real. I will condemn any candidate from either party who does this.

Gosh, why and how could that be? Such an enigma!

Georgia Democrats have a chance on Dec. 9 to flip a legislative seat that backed Donald Trump by 13 points—but that Democrats won by even more last month in two statewide races.

Update: All votes are now in and Andrew ended up 257 votes (0.89%) short of a *major* upset in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham seat for the #Virginia House of Delegates anchored at James Madison University. This was the closest HoD race for 2025. Welcome to the frontline for 2027.

For decades, any Utah Democrat who wanted to go to Congress had to campaign as a moderate or conservative. Now that the state has a solidly blue congressional seat, though, running as a progressive is suddenly an effective strategy.

Great idea!!

Also: I was annoyed provisional ballots weren't reallocated back to precincts like early in-person early ballots and mail-in absentee ballots (regular and PE), so we passed my bill SB 1044 this year to do that. So now you can see provisional vote totals by precinct. lis.virginia.gov/bill-details...

This is awesome. Truly one of us.

In fact, VA01 - which Abigail Spanberger narrowly won last Tuesday - is also VERY competitive, even before any possible redistricting (which isn't "ill advised" at all; it's an ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY response to what Republicans are doing across the country) bluevirginia.us/2025/11/u-s-...

BREAKING: Rep. Adelita Grijalva signs the Epstein discharge petition, serving as the 218th vote to force the bill to the floor for a full vote of the House.

Turkish proverb

Ranking Member Robert Garcia: "The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President."

Utah Democrats are getting something they haven't had in a very, very, very long time: a safely Democratic U.S. House seat to run for.

Yes we need generational change and new blood in the Democratic party. However, if your automatic reaction when seeing "person X who is related to politician Y is running for office Z" is to boo them without knowing anything about person X's merits or policies, then you are a hateful clown.

2-3? Try 4.

With Utah's new congressional map, that's now the sixth state with new districts for 2026—following CA, MO, NC, OH & TX. And it's not over yet.

Virginia's Senate Majority Leader confirms to Bolts that Virginia Democrats intend to move the constitutional amendment that'd allow for a mid-decade gerrymander in January. Says it is “going to be one of the first orders of business."

Dems will almost certainly flip one seat on Utah's new congressional map if it stands. It creates a safely blue Harris+24 seat in Salt Lake City, replacing a GOP gerrymander that split the SLC area four ways to ensure every seat was dark red. Interactive map: davesredistricting.org/join/cf1048c...

Utah’s Lieutenant Governor, who oversees elections in that state, says she is already moving forward with the new map ordered by a judge last night. She’d previously said the state needed to know by yesterday. (So if an appeals court is gonna jump in, it likely would have to be asap.)

it is almost as if someone was promoted beyond their ability

👇👇

Breaking: A Utah judge just tossed out Republicans’ gerrymandered map and ordered a new map that will include a new safe Democratic seat. Utah now joins California in helping to cancel out Trump’s gerrymandering.

My post of Decision Desk's decision to call the Seattle mayor race for Harrell last week didn't hinge on who would ultimately win: The point was that a "call" isn't a race to get a prediction right. But Wilson now being ahead should at least bring more attention to the importance of not rushing.

JUST IN: Katie Wilson is now ahead of Mayor Bruce Harrell in the Seattle mayoral race. Stay tuned for details on today's count.

Steny Hoyer & Jamie Raskin send letter to MD Senate President Bill Ferguson, who has opposed mid-decade redistricting, saying that he should move forward with a new map: "We believe such an effort can survive any legal attack"

Voter turnout was so low that the next mayor of Seattle will be decided by a handful of votes. Attacking Democrats suppresses voter turnout and impedes us from making the progress we otherwise could be making.

Hoyer is notable because his desire for certain territory in his district helped prevent an 8-0 map with a third Black district in prior remaps (especially in 2012). If Axios' recent report that he's likely to retire is accurate, it would make an 8-0 map with increased Black representation easier

Q: So Dr Oz said that-- JEFFRIES: Who? Nobody who is serious in this country takes Dr Oz seriously.

NEW: Dems easily flipped the sheriff's office in Pennsylvania's Bucks County, a big swing county in the Philly suburbs. So? The incumbent GOP sheriff had contracted with ICE. His Dem challenger promised to end the contract. Now he wants other swing-state Dems to look at his victory as a lesson:

Not going to sugar coat it, I think it's a pretty idiotic thing to do to compare Zohran Mamdani's margin in NYC , in 3-person race off the usual left-right spectrum, to Kamala Harris's margin in 2024. So stupid as to make you question the intentions of the author www.thirdway.org/memo/ten-rea...

BREAKING: Trump has just issued pardons to dozens of conservatives who tried to overturn the 2020 election results, including: Mark Meadows, Kenneth Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, and more — per pardon attorney Ed Martin.

The Trump administration is working as hard as it can to starve 42 million kids, seniors and families. Incompetence and inhumanity in equal measure.

Virginia House seats won by Democrats this century, out of the chamber's 100 seats: in 2001: 32 in 2003: 34 in 2005: 40 in 2007: 44 in 2009: 39 in 2011: 32 in 2013: 33 in 2015: 34 in 2017: 49 in 2019: 55 (first Dem majority since 1999) in 2021: 48 in 2023: 51 2025, i.e. this week: 64

Newsom: He is a historic president—a historically unpopular president. Underwater in every key category—I mean, you can’t even make this up; this is hard to do…

*through gritted teeth* Well done Schumer

WOW: California Gov. Gavin Newsom gets a rock star welcome in Houston, Texas — greeted by cheering crowds lined up outside his rally today.

Let this sink in. The President of the United States is now appealing a court order forcing him to feed starving children.

Dems won Georgia’s Public Service Commission elections by 25-point landslides—their largest for any office since 1998—and improved over 2024 everywhere. These maps compare results by state House district for: 2024 president (left) - 96-84 Trump majority 2025 PSC seat 3 (right) - 115-65 Dem majority

Virginia’s Senate president pro tem has been posting things like this and calling for passing a 10D-1R congressional map next year 👀

Dem gains in this week's elections erased the inroads Trump made with non-white, young, and low-income voters in 2024. In fact, the R-to-D shift from 24 to 25 is double Trump's gains from 20-24. Claims of a GOP political realignment have been highly exaggerated www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trumps-win...

State Senator Louise Lucas, I must apologize, I was not familiar with your game