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The plot to redraw America - POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/31/the-redistricting-fight-that-dominated-american-politics-in-2025-00703193Donald Trump was confused.
His top political aide, James Blair, arrived in the Oval Office one afternoon this April to pitch a novel gambit: Republicans could begin padding their narrow U.S. House majority well before voters went to the polls in November 2026. If successful, the move could insulate the White House from a potentially brutal midterm election — the kind, both men knew, that beset Trump during his first term, empowering a Democratic-controlled House to pursue endless investigations and impeach him twice.
The idea: Lean on red states like Texas to break from tradition and redraw congressional maps well before the 2030 population count triggers a mandatory reallocation of House seats. Blair began considering the maneuver shortly after Election Day in 2024, finalizing a plan while others in the White House focused on staffing the new administration. Now, it was time to brief the president.
“Wait a minute,” Trump stopped Blair, according to the recollection of a person familiar with the conversation, “you mean redo the census?”
“No,” Blair responded. “Just states redrawing with the authority they already have.”
Trump didn’t need to hear more from Blair, the young operative whose preternatural foresight as political director of the 2024 presidential campaign had earned him a nickname of “The Oracle.” A crucial race loomed that spring for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which was set to become the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. Both sides were spending aggressively because of the stakes: ongoing litigation over redistricting that could net Democrats one of the three House seats necessary to retake the House in 2026.
“We could either go on offense, or we could let the Democrats sue the majority away,” recounted Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust and one of the first people the White House contacted to set Blair’s plan into action.
His top political aide, James Blair, arrived in the Oval Office one afternoon this April to pitch a novel gambit: Republicans could begin padding their narrow U.S. House majority well before voters went to the polls in November 2026. If successful, the move could insulate the White House from a potentially brutal midterm election — the kind, both men knew, that beset Trump during his first term, empowering a Democratic-controlled House to pursue endless investigations and impeach him twice.
The idea: Lean on red states like Texas to break from tradition and redraw congressional maps well before the 2030 population count triggers a mandatory reallocation of House seats. Blair began considering the maneuver shortly after Election Day in 2024, finalizing a plan while others in the White House focused on staffing the new administration. Now, it was time to brief the president.
“Wait a minute,” Trump stopped Blair, according to the recollection of a person familiar with the conversation, “you mean redo the census?”
“No,” Blair responded. “Just states redrawing with the authority they already have.”
Trump didn’t need to hear more from Blair, the young operative whose preternatural foresight as political director of the 2024 presidential campaign had earned him a nickname of “The Oracle.” A crucial race loomed that spring for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which was set to become the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. Both sides were spending aggressively because of the stakes: ongoing litigation over redistricting that could net Democrats one of the three House seats necessary to retake the House in 2026.
“We could either go on offense, or we could let the Democrats sue the majority away,” recounted Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust and one of the first people the White House contacted to set Blair’s plan into action.
The failed plot to redraw America
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2025-12-31T17:15:07.610Z
How Trump launched a redistricting caper he couldn’t pull off.
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