House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) each confirmed on Sunday plans to redraw the congressional maps in their respective states after California approved a measure setting up redistricting for a popular vote this fall.
Democrats, primarily in California, are aggressively pursuing redistricting to counter the GOP’s efforts to gain more House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Speaking with CNN anchor Dana Bash on State of the Union, Jeffries said New York’s Democrat-controlled government is considering such a plan.
“There’s a plan to respond as appropriately in New York and in other parts of the country as the circumstances dictate,” Jeffries said. Bash pressed him multiple times for over two minutes, but he repeatedly declined to disclose specific details.
NEW: Democrat ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries admits “there’s a plan” brewing to rig New York’s maps to seize the House
Democrats already tried rigging New York’s maps & got slapped down
Same Democrat corrupt rigging playbook, different election cycle pic.twitter.com/JMgTfUcjN7
— NRCC (@NRCC) August 24, 2025
Notably, the House minority leader met with Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and leaders in the state legislature last month to discuss a path forward on redistricting.
The Republican Party has a three-seat majority in the House, which Jeffries noted is the narrowest majority that either party has held since the Great Depression; during the 65th congressional session between 1931 and 1933, Republicans initially held 217 seats compared to Democrats’ 216 seats.
Meanwhile, Moore was more explicit in his intentions to redraw the electoral map in Maryland, a state that only has one Republican, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), in its congressional delegation.
Moore unequivocally said “all options are on the table” for redistricting.
When CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation asked Moore if he was actively considering gerrymandering, he responded in the affirmative, “because we have to” fight against President Donald Trump.
“I want to make sure we have fair lines and fair seats”: Maryland governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) told “Face the Nation’s” @margbrennan that “all options are on the table” regarding redistricting in Maryland, which currently has one Republican in its congressional delegation. pic.twitter.com/YCjljamtNl
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 24, 2025
“I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats, where we don’t have situations [in which] politicians are choosing voters but that voters actually have a chance to choose their elected officials. We need to be able to have fair maps,” Moore said.
“We also need to make sure that if [Trump] is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win at the ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters’ voices can actually be heard,” he added.
The Democratic governor dismissed the notion that Maryland’s redistricting plan would be unfair for the Republican constituents in Harris’s district.
“If you look at maps across the country, less than 10% of congressional seats are actually competitive by nature,” he explained. “If you look at the average win margin in our state and so many states, the average win margin is upwards of 20%-30%. So that means we already have so many gerrymandered areas that we have to be able to add a measure of fairness in the way that it’s applied.”
NEWSOM SIGNS REDISTRICTING BILLS, TAKES FIGHT OVER CONGRESSIONAL MAP TO VOTERS
Beyond New York and Maryland, Democrats in Illinois are also considering following California’s lead in redistricting.
California’s Democrat-controlled legislature passed a redistricting ballot measure for a November special election last week, quickly followed by a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). Its passage came two days before Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature approved its own redistricting measure. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is expected to sign the bill as soon as possible.
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