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PBS News Hour - Segments

How partisan redistricting battles could decide the next Congress

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Texas lawmakers are back in session after Democrats returned to the state after leaving to block partisan redistricting. Democrats came back because California is planning its own partisan map to counteract GOP gains in Texas. To discuss how the map battle could decide the next Congress, Lisa Desjardins spoke with Dr. Sam Wang of the Electoral Innovation Lab. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0

State lawmakers are back in session today in Texas, and that includes Democrats who've now returned after leaving to block partisan redistricting. The House Speaker gaveled the chamber in for business for the first time in two weeks.

0:13.5

We are done waiting. We have a quorum. Now is the time for action. We will move quickly, and the schedule will be demanding until our work is complete.

0:23.1

Texas Democrats returned because California Democrats are planning their own partisan map to counteract any GOP gains.

0:30.9

I'm not happy to be here. We didn't choose this fight. We don't want this fight. But with our democracy on the line, we cannot run away from this fight.

0:40.7

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardin has more.

0:44.3

Jeff, this battle of the maps could decide the next battle for Congress.

0:48.5

To dig into what's happening, we're joined by Dr. Sam Wong,

0:51.2

director of the Electoral Innovation Lab, who's pioneered ways to analyze

0:55.6

gerrymandering. Sam, let's start with California. If you look at the maps, the one on the left

1:02.1

is the current congressional map. And then on the right, you see what Democrats are now proposing.

1:07.7

Help us understand what Democrats are doing in California and how many seats do you think

1:13.0

they could gain?

1:14.0

Well, Democrats are working with a map that is drawn by an independent commission,

1:19.4

and that commission went to efforts to represent different parts of the state.

1:22.4

So as a result, there are Republican-leaning parts of the state that are represented.

1:26.7

Democratic-leaning parts of the state that are represented, Democratic-leaning parts of the state

1:28.5

also represented. Democrats have now sketched out a draft map that will pick them up around five or

1:35.0

six seats, and the way they've done it is by arranging parts of the state to be more favorable to

1:39.8

them. And so the Independent Commission tried to respect communities.

1:48.3

And now what the Democrats are trying to do is draw a map for the next few elections,

1:54.8

a temporary map that will basically take Republicans and pack them into a smaller number of districts or split them.

1:56.7

And through this artful arrangement, gain an advantage of a five-seat gain compared with the

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