Trump’s scheme to steal the midterm election by getting red states to gerrymander more Republican House seats was a poorly thought-out effort with great potential to backfire from the moment it was launched.
The president assumed that Democrats would not fight back. Trump also assumed that red states would line up around the country to carry out his wishes.
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Democrats did fight back by playing by the same rules that Trump established. In California, Democrats romped to a new map that could net them five House seats. While in red states like Kansas and Indiana, Republicans refused to redraw their maps. Ohio Republicans rejected a full-scale gerrymander and went with a fairer map after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threatened them with a ballot referendum.
The next-biggest shoe to drop came in the purple state of Virginia, which was never going to put up margins as big as the California referendum did, but represented the GOP’s best chance to stop the crisis Trump caused.
Polling showed that the amendment to redraw the map temporarily until the 2030 Census was close, and the vote was close, but in the end, Yes has been projected to win, which means that Donald Trump has potentially cost Republicans four more House seats and their House majority.
The point that must be reinforced is that this is all a self-inflicted wound.