In the last week, with lightning speed, the nation's foremost political leaders have jettisoned any pretense of political fairness in favor of an all-out partisan war for power.

Lofgren, the chair of California’s 43-member Democratic delegation, consulted in June with a trusted data expert who dismissed it as absurd — a foolhardy end-run around the state’s popular redistricting panel with no guarantee of yielding enough blue seats to fully offset Texas.

Texas lawmakers approved a new congressional map this week at the behest of President Donald Trump, seeking to preserve his Republican Party's slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2026 midterm elections.

It all amounts to the opening salvo in what is likely to become a national showdown to grasp power through gerrymandering.