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What Next - The Case for Fighting Dirty

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.56K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A redrawn Virginia electoral map looked like it could offset at least some red state gerrymandering—until the Virginia Supreme Court stepped in. But if Democrats—in the commonwealth or elsewhere—have a way to keep Republicans from redistricting themselves into permanent power, now’s the time.


Guest: Jamelle Bouie, New York Times opinion columnist


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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It's a little wild to consider the emotional roller coaster Democrats have been on just over the last week or two, isn't it?

0:18.0

Back in April, thanks to a combination of strategic gerrymandering and White House incompetence,

0:24.1

the Dems seemed to be sitting pretty, heading into the November midterms.

0:29.6

But that's when court decisions started coming down.

0:34.4

Taken together, how would you characterize what's just happened to the Democratic Party?

0:39.8

It's a glancing blow, right?

0:41.7

So not a kick in the teeth?

0:43.8

A kick in the teeth that you could put glancing blow, you know.

0:47.5

Lansing blow sounds gentle.

0:48.9

Maybe a sucker punch.

0:50.0

There we go.

0:51.1

They got knockout games.

0:56.6

The New York Times, Jamal Bowie, says the first punch came from the Supreme Court.

1:01.8

When it all but wiped out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,

1:07.0

that opened the door for states like Louisiana and Tennessee and Alabama to start redrawing congressional maps to dilute black and democratic representation.

1:18.5

Then there's what happened in Jamel's home state, Virginia.

1:22.4

It was a relatively narrow victory, but Democrats turned out in Virginia, pushing the amendment over the finish line,

1:29.0

especially in northern Virginia. Back in April, Virginia's voters had chosen to let the state legislature

1:33.7

alter congressional maps to give Democrats more power in Washington. The new map will mean a major

1:41.1

shift blue, at least temporarily.

1:50.6

This was meant to counter Republican gerrymandering in places like Texas and North Carolina.

1:55.1

Anyway, last week, Virginia's Supreme Court said not so fast.

...

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