Jeffries Insists Democrats Can Win House Despite Redistricting

Democrats remain bullish about winning House control after redistricting setbacks, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote in a Dear Colleague letter Monday.

House Republicans “will not meaningfully benefit from their scandalous gerrymandering scheme,” Jeffries wrote. “Quite the opposite. Democratic enthusiasm and resolve have grown more intense.”

Democrats’ midterm prospects suffered two blows in recent weeks. Last week Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that was part of Democrats’ effort to counter GOP-led redistricting in Texas. Republicans claimed another major victory when the US Supreme Court struck down a congressional map in Louisiana for relying too heavily on race. Democrats say the decision runs counter to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and will allow the GOP to suppress the Black vote across the South.

While there’s little else Democrats can do to draw more blue-leaning districts as they attempted in Virginia, Jeffries pointed to pending litigation across the country to fight “Jim Crow-era racial gerrymandering.” Jeffries said he and the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, Rep. Joe Morelle (N.Y.), will brief House Democrats on Thursday at 11 a.m. about the “largest voter protection effort in modern American history.”