Letters from an American - Gerrymandering Arms Race

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Tennessee divides its majority-Black 9th Congressional District into three districts that extend into white suburbs, turning all its districts into Republican seats. The NAACP has sued Tennessee to block the redistricting. Other Republican dominated states are rushing to redraw their own districts after the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision. The CIA releases a report that contends the Trump administration is inflating its military successes and impact in Iran. The US says its exchange of fire with Iran in the Hormuz Strait does not violate the ceasefire. Tom Homan claims there are 20 million undocumented immigrants in the country, and the majority of Americans think the Trump administration is cracking down to hard on immigration. Trump continues to attack the Pope. Secretary Rubio visits the Vatican, and the Pope gives him a pen made out of the symbol of peace: olive wood. Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

May 7, 26. Today, Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones burned a Confederate battle flag in the rotunda of the Tennessee State Capitol in protest of the legislature's redrawing of the state's congressional district maps to erase the majority black 9th Congressional District. By cracking the city of Memphis into three pieces and joining them to white suburbs, the legislature turned all the state's district. into Republican seats. The actions of the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature are a direct response to the Supreme Court's April 29th decision in Louisiana v. Calais, which found that in creating a second

congressional district to enable black voters to elect a representative of their choice, as mandated by the 1965 V. Rights Act, the Louisiana legislature unconstitutionally took race into account when drawing the district lines. Although the Supreme Court's clerk normally waits 32 days to finalize an opinion, the Supreme Court made the decision effective immediately to allow Louisiana, where the primary election was already underway, to redraw its maps. Immediately, Republican-dominated state governments rushed to redistrict their states to eliminate majority black districts, thus slashing through Democratic representation in their states. As Kaya Himmelman of Talking Points Memo explained today,

Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, immediately suspended a congressional primary election that was already underway in order to give Republican legislators a chance to change the maps to give at least one of the state's two Democratic seats to Republicans. Although a federal court injunction forbids Alabama from redrawing its maps before the 2030 census, Republican Governor K. Ivy called for the state to do so, and Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court to let the state revert to a map struck down in 2023 because it was racially gerrymandered.

Trump began this gerrymandering arms race last year, pressuring Republican Texas legislators to redistrict the state to help Republicans win the midterms and protect him from investigations and possible impeachment. As of today, Patrick Marley of the Washington Post noted, Republican-dominated legislatures in Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida have redistricted to pick up Republican seats, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Alabama are engaged in that process. In retaliation, Democrats have temporarily redistricted the states of California and Virginia. Tennessee is now expected to send only Republicans to Congress. Just minutes after the Republicans cut Memphis into thirds to get rid of the voices of black Democrats, Republican State Senator Brent Taylor announced he was running for the new seat, to stand with President Trump and cement Tennessee's conservative legacy for generations to come. In Tennessee, Representative Steve Cohen, who currently represents Memphis,

and it was the only Democrat in the Tennessee Congressional Delegation posted. And just like that, the Tennessee Republicans voted to enforce a racial gerrymander of Memphis and strip our city of effective representation for decades. Trump knows he has to rig the game to keep his majority in November. And the Tennessee Republicans were willing to go along with it. It's shameful. Next stop is the courts. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, has already sued to block the redistricting.

Cohen is right that the Republicans recognize the only way for them to win going forward is to skew the maps so that Democrats can't win, because right now, at least, the administration is a dumpster fire. This morning, Warren P. Strobel, John Hudson, and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington, Post reported that the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, delivered a confidential analysis of conditions in Iran that suggests the administration has been badly off the mark in its public statements about the war. Although Trump insists that the war has been an overwhelming military victory and that Iran is suffering so badly from the U.S. military blockade, it will have to cave to U.S. demands

quickly. The CIA report assesses that, in fact, Iran can survive for at least three or four more months before having to deal with more severe economic hardship. The report also assesses that Iran still has about 75% of the mobile missile launchers it had before the war and about 70% of its missiles. Trump has told reporters that Iran's economy is crashing and that that, Iran's economy is crashing and that Iran was down to 18% or 19% of its former missile stocks. The content of the analysis is important, and so is the fact that CIA analysts are sharing it with reporters, suggesting they are disturbed by the administration's current trajectory. The administration insists the war has terminated, meaning that it does not have to honor

the 1973 War Powers Act that requires the president either to withdraw troops or get congressional approval for continuing military actions. Today, the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran firing on three U.S. destroyers and the U.S. firing on two ships entering the Strait. While the Iranian military called the strikes a violation of the ceasefire, a U.S. official told Barack Ravid and Dave Lawler of Axios that the exchange did not mean the war had resumed. This evening, the president told Rachel Scott of ABC News in a phone call that the ceasefire is still in effect and the retaliatory strikes against Iranian targets are just a love tap. As the national average for a gallon of gas hit $4.56 today, the breederate. The British

British energy giant Shell announced its profits were up 24% in the first three months of 2026. This amounted to almost $7 billion, more than twice what Shell made in the previous quarter. In the Wall Street Journal, John Kielman, reported today that Whirlpool, which makes refrigerators and washing machines, said the Iran War has caused a recession-level industry decline and that Americans should expect to pay higher prices for appliances going forward. While experts say there were about 14 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in 2025, Trump border advisor Tom Holman told the Fox News Channel today that there are well over 20 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., and we're going to do everything we can to arrest as many people

as we can. But a new Pew poll shows that 52% of Americans already think Trump is cracking down too hard on undocumented immigrants. Politico adds that that number includes about a quarter of the people who voted for him in 2024. It also includes 67% of Latino voters who had swung toward the Republicans in 24. Those poll numbers came before today's story by Lisa Song, Maya Miller, Melissa Sanchez, and Merriam Elba of ProPublica, identifying 79 children injured by tear gas or pepper spray during immigration encounters. While the reporters documented federal agents throwing tear gas and shooting pepper spray into crowds, the Department of Homeland Security said the fault for the children's injuries,

lies with agitators and parents who put their children in harm's way. DHS does not target children, it said. The journalists assess that their count of 79 injured children is likely still a vast undercount. Americans are paying dearly for the administration's detention of immigrants. Hamid Aliazis of the New York Times reported that the administration of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis is talking with the Trump administration about closing the Everglades detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. The center has been called unsanitary and

inhumane since it opened about 10 months ago, yet the cost of housing its 1,400 detainees is more than a million dollars a day. DeSantis has asked for $608 million to run the camp for a year. And then there are Trump's increasingly high-profile attacks on the Pope. Pope Leo the 14th is the first Pope from the United States, and Trump seems determined to challenge him. The Pope has spoken out against inhumane treatment of migrants and is called for peace through diplomacy. An observation Trump has taken as criticism of his war on Iran. Last week, Pope Leo appointed Bishop Olivia Menchever-Ayela to become the new bishop of West Virginia. Menhrivar Ayela was once an undocumented immigrant himself. Trump posted last month that Pope Leo was weak on crime and terrible for foreign

policy, and he has continued his attacks, saying Monday, the Pope would rather talk about the fact that it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don't think that's very good. I think he's endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people. But I guess if it's up to the Pope, he thinks it's just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. As Sarah Ewall Weiss reported in the Daily Beast, Pope Leo responded indirectly, noting that the mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace. If anyone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so truthfully. He continued, The church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, so there is no doubt about that.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was at the Vatican today to ease tensions. The visit did not go particularly well. While Rubio gave Pope Leo a crystal football with the seal of the State Department, Pope Leo gave Rubio a pen made from the symbol of peace, Olivewood. The Vatican statement did not say that. suggest the men found much common ground, saying the meeting included an exchange of views regarding the regional and international situation, with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as to the need to work

tirelessly in support of peace. And finally, today the president himself is in the news, or rather, out of it. Trump, both of whose hands have been covered in makeup lately, apparently to hide bruises, was supposed to have a meeting today with President Luis Ignacio Lula de Silva of Brazil at 1115 that was open to the press. The reporters waited three hours, but the event never happened. At 122, Trump's social media account simply posted that the meeting went very well and that Representatives from the two countries would continue to meet. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.