From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

The gerrymander wars keep escalating as both Democrats and Republicans try to carve out as many safe seats for their party as they possibly can in order to either save the Republican House majority or Democrats

to reclaim it in 2026. Where does this escalation and and who ends up on top? Oh, and is this

good for America? We'll ask that question. All right. Welcome. I'm

Paul as you go here on Potomac Watch, the Daily Podcast, to Wall Street Journal opinion.

And I'm here with Alicia Finley and Kyle Peterson. My colleagues should follow these things.

Now, Jerry Madders have been with us since the American founding, and the name was first

coined in 1812.

But the practice has really been escalating in recent decades as both parties refined the

techniques for finding their voters and carving districts that get those voters in or out,

as they might prefer.

And the most recent round was kicked off by Donald J. Trump, prodding Texas legislature and Governor Greg Abbott to redistrict this year to carve out more Republican seats for his party come

2026.

He's hoping to get five more seats, and we'll talk a little bit about whether that's realistic.

But let's listen to Trump recently on CNBC.

But in Illinois, what's happened is terrible what they're doing.

And you notice they go to Illinois for safety, but that's all gerrymandered.

California is gerrymandered. We should have many more seats in Congress in California. It's all gerrymandered.

And we have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas.

And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats. I don't know. I'm not sure that word entitled is accurate. Nobody is entitled to the number of seats. Just for background. Currently, there are 38 seats in the House in Texas. Twenty-five of them

are held by Republicans, 13, by Democrats. Republican candidates for the House won 58.4% of the

vote in 2024 compared to 40.3% for Democrats. So that 25 to 13 mix is not really that greatly out of whack

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