Since the Supreme Court declared another celebration of the Day of Jubilee, the redistricting wars have gone nuclear. From Politico:
Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a proposed congressional map that slices into the state’s majority-Black district and will likely secure them an all-GOP federal delegation.The redraw comes as Republican-led Southern states scramble to enact new maps in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and opened the door to states blowing up blue districts drawn to protect the voting power of racial minorities.Tennessee’s new map aims to draw the state’s lone Democratic congressional representative—Rep. Steve Cohen—out of his Memphis-area seat by splitting up majority-Black Shelby County. It also divides Maury County, likely delivering a more favorable district to Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s target list.
Andy Ogles is one of Congress’s premier loons. (He first came on the shebeen’s radar when he and the family posed for their holiday card in front of their Christmas tree all holding the firearm of their choice.) The Department of Justice just recently gave him a pass on some alleged campaign-finance shenanigans. This left Ogles free to ramble publicly about how “America is for people named Andrew Jackson, not Mohamed Mohamed” and pump more balloon juice into his résumé. Naturally, then, the GOP has to move heaven and earth to keep him in our Congress.
Not only does this move guarantee an all-GOP congressional delegation for Tennessee, but it also chokes off the possibility that Justin Pearson, a young rising Democratic star, would beat Cohen in a primary, something of which Pearson is quite aware. From Channel 5 in Nashville:
Pearson may be best known for being expelled from the Tennessee legislature three years ago for protesting against gun violence following the Covenant School Shooting. His Memphis district quickly sent him back to the legislature. Now he is running for Congress, but he is concerned that his congressional district may be eliminated. “This is another attempt to silence our voice, to destroy and disrupt our ability to even have a modicum of power,” Pearson said.“We are not going to yield our ability to serve in the United States Congress because of tweets, because of threats, even because of a special session,” Pearson said. “I’m in the Tennessee House of Representatives and if there’s a special session, I’ll be here with hundreds of people demanding that we do not support racist maps but rather we continue to keep the districts that we have.”
From the Indiana Capital Chronicle:
Indiana Republican voters decisively sided with President Donald Trump’s call for political vengeance against state senators who defied him and voted down congressional redistricting. Results from Tuesday’s primaries showed six Republican challengers endorsed by Trump defeating incumbent candidates, with another Trump-backed candidate winning an open seat primary. Only one of the eight senators opposed by pro-redistricting groups—Greg Goode of Terre Haute—was a certain winner.
The president of the Indiana state senate is suddenly on the griddle.
The results could jeopardize Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray’s hold on the top Senate leadership position he’s held since 2018. Trump repeatedly blasted Bray and GOP senators who opposed the push to redraw Indiana’s U.S. House maps to carve up the two districts held by Democrats with the aim of a 9–0 Republican congressional delegation. Bray’s Martinsville-area Senate seat isn’t on the ballot until 2028, but Trump and his pro-redistricting allies sought pledges from primary challengers that they would seek to oust Bray as Senate president pro tem. Bray said Tuesday night that he would seek to remain as the Senate’s leader. He said the primary results showed the impact of the unheard-of $10 million-plus that national organizations spent on defeating the incumbent senators.
And Callais joins hands with Citizens United. It’s the Circle of Life at the Roberts household.
From The New York Times:
Ms. Lucas’s influence was crucial to a recent battle over congressional redistricting. Last month, voters in Virginia approved an unusual plan to redraw district boundaries in the middle of the decade, as opposed to a long tradition of redrawing the lines after every census, which is conducted once a decade. Democrats argued the new district lines were needed because of efforts by President Trump and his supporters to redraw boundaries in Republican-dominated states ahead of the 2026 congressional elections, at a time when the Iran war and high gas prices are hurting Republicans’ popularity.In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of 11 House seats, but the new map could tilt that to 10 to 1 in their favor. After Republicans complained that the new Virginia political map was unfair to their voters, Ms. Lucas was characteristically blunt on social media. “You all started it,” she replied to Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas. “We,” she said, using an expletive, “finished it.”
There’s a fig leaf available for the administration in that there seems to be an ongoing investigation into Lucas’s ownership of a cannabis dispensary. And the Fox News correspondent seemed horrified by Lucas’s sins against the civil political dialogue that Fox has worked so hard to promote in the American political conversation.
Lucas is known for a bombastic social media presence, heavy on crude language and memes. During heated statewide debate about the recently-passed Virginia redistricting map, Lucas sparred with critics on X, ripping President Donald Trump and mocking Republicans with a GIF of herself dancing to Famous Dex’s “Hoes Mad.” She has asserted that Democrats will “fight fire with fire” regarding the redistricting fight and said, “You can bet your a-- that Democrats are ready for this fight.”
Oh, just piss off.
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