Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is traveling today, and her travel

arrangements did not allow her time to read today's letter, so I will be reading it in her place.

August 2nd, 2025.

Republicans in the state legislature are working to redistrict the state before the

2026 midterm elections. Although state legislators normally redraw district lines every 10

years after the census required by the Constitution, President Donald J. Trump has asked Texas

Republicans to redistrict now, mid-decade, in order to cut up five districts that tend to vote

Democratic and create districts, Republicans will almost certainly win. Five additional seats will

help the Republicans hold control of the House of Representatives

despite their growing unpopularity. Trump is urging other Republican-dominated state legislatures,

those in Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Ohio, for example, to do the same thing.

We're going to get another three or four or five in addition, Trump said to reporters about House seats. Texas would be the biggest one,

and that'll be five. Shane Goldmacher and Nick Corrissiniti of the New York Times note that

voters are reduced almost to bystanders,

as Republicans essentially admit to trying to determine the outcome of Texas races long before

the elections are held. A person close to the president told Goldmaker and Corristenetti

that the White House strategy is maximum warfare everywhere all the time.

Trump and the Republicans would not be trying to rig the system if they thought they could win a

majority of voters. Carving districts to either crack political opponents into different

districts or pack them into a single district is called gerrymandering.

After Elbridge Jerry, an early governor of Massachusetts who signed off on such a scheme, even though he didn't like it.

Parties have always engaged in gerrymandering, but computers make it possible to carve up districts with surgical precision.

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