Rallies were held in cities across the U.S. Saturday for the “Fight the Trump Takeover National Day of Action” focused on concerns about redistricting.
“Trump is trying to steal the 2026 election by rigging the system and changing electoral maps,” said a website established for the rallies. “He started in Texas, but he won’t stop there. We are fighting back.”
KRLD 1080 has reported on the redistricting situation in Texas, where House Democrats have spoken out about issue and are blocking quorum to prevent it. This Thursday, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said the party successfully mobilized the entire nation against what he called Trump’s “assault on minority voting rights.”
Lawmakers from Texas and Indiana met Thursday in Chicago, Ill., to oppose Republican-led redistricting measures and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked an Illinois judge to compel them to return to Austin. That judge declined. Texas Democrats have said that redistricting efforts in their state would flip five seats to Republicans. In Indiana, Vice President JD Vance has also met with the governor over redistricting issues.
“Hoosiers don’t want these top-down directives from DC to rig our elections. Redrawing the lines mid-decade is cheating, and Hoosiers know it,” said the Indiana Democratic party in a Friday X post.
According to an event description for a Saturday rally in New York, “Trump isn’t stopping in Texas. He’s targeting Missouri, Ohio, Florida, and every state he can twist to help him steal Congress next year. States like California and New York are starting to fight back.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday announced “statewide” actions to fight against “Trump’s attempts to rig Texas’ elections next year.” Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that her state stands with Texas lawmakers.
Experts have also warned about redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Dave Wasserman, senior editor of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” this week: “This has the potential to be the gerrymandering apocalypse we all feared.”
Wasserman also said that: “Republicans are obviously desperate to hold their majority. They know that President Trump’s approval rating is not great, the bill they passed isn’t that popular. So, adding insurance and piling on sandbags to their very thin majority – the only way they can do that is by redistricting.”
If Republicans manage to redistrict in their target states, it could triple the “Republican cushion” going into 2026, Wasserman said. He explained that Democrats in California are fighting back with their own map that puts Republican seats there in peril, hoping it will make Republicans dial back their efforts in Texas.
Generally, the political party in power in the White House typically doesn’t do well in the midterms. However, that wasn’t true in 2022, when Democrats did fairly well when former President Joe Biden was in office.