Letters from an American - The Fight Over Gerrymandering

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

April 22, 2026Virginia voters support a constitutional amendment to temporarily redistrict the state, VA judge rules the amendment and the referendum were invalid, Virginia’s attorney general will challenge judge's decision, The partisan gerrymander race stated in Texas, Republicans are trying to excuse their partisan actions while jumping on Democrats for similar behavior, This pattern is not new, having played out before the Civil War, In 1856, northerners shocked southern leaders by calling them out for trying to destroy democracy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks out about the importance of Democrats defending themselves, echoing that moment. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-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

April 22nd, 2026. Virginia voters yesterday agreed to a constitutional amendment that would temporarily redistrict the state, if any other state, redistricted for partisan reasons. That is, in retaliation for the partisan redistricting, President Donald J. Trump launched in Texas in 2025 in an effort to retain control of the House of Representatives. As Matt Cohn of Democracy Docket noted, Trump's supporters immediate, insisted the voting was rigged, probably through mail-in ballots. Trump himself took to social media to attack the election, repeating charges of rigging, and then adding, in addition to everything else,

the language on the referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the referendum. And neither do they. Let's see if the courts will fix this. travesty of justice. In fact, Trump himself began this mid-decade partisan gerrymander race with his pressure on Texas to rejigger its own maps to give Republicans more house seats. That prompted California to retaliate with its own temporary redistricting to offset the new Texas Republican-leaning seats. Other states followed suit. Republicans redistricted Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio in addition to Texas and expect those mid-decade redistricts will net them nine more seats.

Democrats think their redistricting of California, along with a court-ordered redistricting of Utah, will get them an additional six seats. They're hoping that the temporary redistricting of Virginia will give them four more seats. State lawmakers in Florida will convene a special session next week to consider redistricting that state as well to benefit the Republicans. Journalist Brian Tyler Cohen noted that the Republicans have full control of the federal government and could pass a law to ban partisan gerrymandering anytime they want to, as Democrats have called for, but they refuse. Republicans aren't mad gerrymandering exists, Cohen notes. They're mad that they're not the only ones using it.

The Republican National Committee, now controlled by Trump, immediately sued over the Virginia election, and a Virginia judge ruled that both the constitutional amendment and the referendum voters approved were invalid. He said that any and all votes for or against the proposed constitutional amendment in the April 21st, 26th special election are ineffective and prevented officials from certifying the results. But, as Junio Rivas of Democracy Docket wrote, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is challenging the decision, saying, Virginia voters have spoken and an activist judge should not have the power over the people's vote. We look forward to defending the outcome of last night's election in court. Complaints about the Democratic push for a partisan gerrymander in Virginia have exposed a tendency to excuse Republican machinations to control politics while jumping on Democrats for similar behavior.

In August 2025, when Texas Republicans began this fight by redistricting their state after a brutal contest that drove Democratic legislators to leave the state and take refuge in Illinois and Massachusetts to deny Republicans enough legislators to pass a redistricting law, the Washington Post editorial board wrote, what's happening in the lone star state is not a threat to democracy. Even if Texas's move triggers an arms race, the trend will not put American democracy on life support, it said, dismissing the concerns of those fighting the Republicans' attempt to game the

26 elections. But with last night's democratic partisan gerrymander, one that, unlike the Texas gerrymander, went before the people for a vote, the editorial board changed its tune. It called this redistricting plan a power grab by Democrats. They're right that the Republicans started this fight by trying to pick up five house seats in Texas through gerrymandering, but they can spare us the false sanctimony about democratic norms going forward,

board members wrote. Their argument appears to be that the Democrats stand a good chance of winning the midterms even if the Republicans have gamed the system, so the Democrats should not push back. The news will emboldened Republicans in Florida to forge ahead with their own new gerrymandering, continuing the race to the bottom, they write, seeming to excuse the behavior of Republicans

by blaming Democrats for it. This pattern, expecting Republicans to behave wildly and cheat to grab power, while expecting Democrats to behave according to the rules of normal times, has been going on now for years, and it's a dynamic that reflects the political patterns of the years before the Civil War. Then, Americans expected Southern Democrats to bully and bluster and rig the system,

while Northerners tried to jolly them into honoring the laws. In the 1950s, Southerners championed their region as the one that had correctly developed the society envisioned by the founders. In the South, a very few wealthy men controlled government and society, enslaving their neighbors. This system, its apologists asserted, was the highest form of human civilization. They opposed any attempt to restrict its spread. The South was superior to the North, enslavers insisted. It alone was patriotic, honored the Constitution, and understood economic growth.

In the interests of Union, northerners repeatedly ceded ground to enslavers, and left their claim to superiority unchallenged. Then, on May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death on the Senate floor, shortly after a speech in which Sumner had called out those who were forcing enslavement on Kansas

and insulted a relative of Brooks. Southern lawmakers and newspaper men alike cheered the violence against an elected representative in the capital. Lawmakers refused to expel Brooks, and one newspaper editor wrote, We trust other gentlemen will follow the example of Mr. Brooks. If need be, let us have a caning or cow hiding every day. But the attack on Sumner was a bridge too far for his colleague, Massachusetts Representative Anson Burlingame.

On June 21st, he stood up in Congress to call out as inferior Brooks and the system of enslavement he defended. Burlingame was sick and tired of buying peace by letting Southerners abuse the North. Enough, he said, was enough. Inslavement was not a superior system, he said. It had dragged the nation backward. Slavery kept workers ignorant and godless, while the northern system of freedom lifted workers up with schools and

and churches. Slavery feared innovation. Freedom encouraged workers to try new ideas. Slavery kept the Southmired in the past. Freedom welcomed the modern world and pushed Americans into a new, thriving economy. And finally, when Sumner had spoken up against the tyranny of slavery, a southerner had clubbed him almost to death on the floor of the Senate. Was ignorance, economic stagnant, and violence the true American system? For his part, Burlingame preferred to throw his lot with the North, which he said was superior to the South in its morality, education, economy, loyalty to the government, and fidelity to the Constitution. Northerners were willing to defend their system, he said, with guns, if necessary. Burlingame's defense of Massachusetts,

its speech marked the first time a prominent northerner had offered to fight to defend the northern way of life. Previously, Southerners had been the ones threatening war and demanding concessions from the north to preserve the peace. Burlingame explained that he was willing to accept a battle because what was at stake was the future of the nation. Forgotten now, Burlingame's speech was once widely considered one of the most important speeches in American history. It marked the moment when Northerners

shocked Southern leaders by calling them out for trying to destroy democracy. Northerners rallied to Burling Games call and to the new Republican Party he was helping to build because he had shown it would

stand up for their rights. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. a Democrat of New York echoed Burling Game today when a reporter asked what she thought of complaints about the Virginia vote. Oh, wah, wah, she laughed. Listen, Democrats have attempted and asked Republicans

for 10 years to ban partisan gerrymandering. And for 10 years, Republicans have said no. Republicans have fought for partisan gerrymanders across the United States of America. And these are the rules that they have set. What they're just mad at is that they have been accustomed to a Democratic Party that rolls over, doesn't fight, and takes everything sitting down. And what they're mad at right now is that we are here in a new day.

And we have been asking the Democratic Party to stand up and fight. And now they did. And now the Republican Party doesn't like the fact that they are fighting against someone who actually will stand up for the American people. So if Republicans decide that they would like to revisit a ban on partisan gerrymandering, I welcome them. We have the bill right here to end all this today. But they don't want to because they like pursuing and continuing to enact an unfair electoral landscape.

And so we have an obligation to defend ourselves. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.