What Next - The Redistricting Arms Race Is On
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Fearing a Democratic-led House of Representatives, Donald Trump set off a state-redistricting arms race when he asked Texas to find him five more safe GOP seats. This triggered California to go hunting for five more Democratic seats, and states like North Carolina and Missouri to search for other seats in the margins. But in some states, Trump’s demands are running into rare Republican resistance.
Guest: Ari Berman, voting rights reporter at Mother Jones.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sean has had some good ideas over the years. |
| 0:05.0 | But using Canva was a really good one. |
| 0:08.0 | Sean designed some social posts to promote his friend's car boot sale. |
| 0:13.0 | They looked good. |
| 0:15.0 | Really, really good. |
| 0:17.0 | Next thing he knows, someone came and bought the lot, including the car. |
| 0:24.5 | Now Sean doesn't know how he's going to get home. |
| 0:28.0 | Thanks, Canva. |
| 0:36.4 | If all goes as expected, tomorrow, the last of California's voters are going to head to the polls and decide to totally upend the 2026 midterms. |
| 0:47.4 | They're going to do that, not by voting for or against a person. They're going to be voting instead for a plan. |
| 0:57.6 | Oh, California has less than a week until the November 4th special election on Proposition 50. |
| 1:02.7 | That's the ballot measure to temporarily redraw state congressional lines ahead of next year's midterms. |
| 1:08.9 | This ballot measure, Prop 50, |
| 1:11.8 | slices and dices California's congressional maps |
| 1:14.5 | to carve out as many as five more seats for the Dems. |
| 1:19.3 | These representatives would head to the Capitol in a matter of months. |
| 1:23.7 | You want to beat Trump? |
| 1:25.0 | Democrats can't keep playing by the old rules. |
| 1:27.3 | The ads for this proposal don't leave much room for debate about what California is trying to do here. |
| 1:33.6 | Vote yes on Prop 50 and let's stick it to Trump. |
| 1:38.9 | Is anyone worried about this ballot measure, whether it's going to pass or not? |
| 1:43.1 | Not really. Every poll has shown it |
... |
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