Salon: Are Dems really “winning” redistricting — in the face of voter-restriction laws and GOP extremists?

n the wake of the 2020 census, the redistricting process by which congressional districts are redrawn has not been as devastating for Democrats as many observers feared. Nonetheless, the consequences could still be dire for democracy: The latest round of Republican gerrymanders threatens to undermine the political power of voters of color and push the Republican Party even further toward the Trumpist extreme.

Despite months of alarm that Republicans could retake control of the House through redistricting alone, recent analyses by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and the left-leaning Data for Progress have found that the redistricting cycle has gone surprisingly well for House Democrats.

Rather than redrawing Democratic districts into Republican ones, the GOP has largely focused on shoring up existing districts created in the ultra-aggressive 2011 redistricting cycle while the few Democratic-led states that haven’t ceded redistricting to independent commissions, such as Oregon and Illinois, have aggressively tried to add likely Democratic seats. Even thought Republicans are redrawing 187 House seats, compared to 75 for Democrats, that’s a significant improvement over the five-to-one advantage the GOP held in 2011. …

In Georgia, Rep. Lucy McBath’s district was redrawn to be heavily Republican, forcing her to run in the same district as Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, a fellow Black Democrat. Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month over the changes, alleging that the map is unconstitutional because it denies representation to Black voters.

“These maps intentionally discriminate against Georgians of color by silencing our voices at the ballot box,” Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement.