Voting Rights Under Scrutiny as Redistricting Wars Escalate

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Next week, California voters will decide whether to approve Proposition 50, which would temporarily redraw Congressional district maps to favor Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. This comes after Republican lawmakers in Texas have redrawn districts to favor their party – with Republican leaders in Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri looking to follow suit. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appears poised to further weaken the Voting Rights Act and further fuel a “redistricting arms race.” We look at how that case, and the escalating efforts to redistrict along partisan lines, could affect election outcomes in 2026 and beyond. Guests: Hansi Lo Wang, correspondent, NPR Erin Covey, editor, U.S. House of Representatives, The Cook Political Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's the most Tony Award-winning show of 2024.
0:04.4	Stereophonic.
0:05.7	Got my ticket to the masquerade.
0:08.3	Now playing at the current theater through November 23rd.
0:12.1	Tickets at BroadwaySF.com.
0:15.1	Support for KQBD Podcast comes from the Exploratorium After Dark.
0:19.8	Adults 18 plus discover mind-bending programs and grab a drink every Thursday from 6 to 10
0:25.5	p.m.
0:26.5	Tickets at Exploratorium.edu slash after dark.
0:31.6	From KQED.
0:34.5	Welcome to Forum.
0:35.9	I'm Mina Kim.
0:36.7	A CBS News poll last week finds Prop 50 favored by some 60% of California voters, and Politico reports opponents of the proposition, major donors, GOP party leaders, have essentially abandoned the fight.
0:51.6	It's less than a week before Election Day when voters will decide whether
0:55.2	California can redraw its congressional district maps to favor Democrats in response to Texas's
1:01.3	partisan Republican redistricting. In several states, both Republican and Democrat-led are watching
1:07.5	Prop 50 closely as they consider redistrictingricting too. They're also watching the Supreme
1:12.6	Court to see if it strikes down parts of the Voting Rights Act, which could prompt dramatic
1:17.5	changes to the election map. We get into all of it this hour. Joining me is Erin Covey, editor of
1:23.3	the Cook Political Report, where she leads coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. Erin, welcome back. Hi, Mina. Thanks for having me on. Also with us, Hansi Lo Wang, a correspondent for NPR. Hi, Hansi. Glad to have you on, too. Hi, Mina. Thank you for having me. So, Erin, let me start with you. When we last talked in August, Governor Newsom was just getting this effort off the ground with a lot of
1:45.0	questions about whether he'd be able to pull it off logistically and with our listeners
1:50.1	expressing a lot of ambivalence about the prospect of pausing independent redistricting. Now Prop 50
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.