North Carolina Republicans had already created one of the nation’s most gerrymandered district maps. Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project recently gave the state’s map an “F” rating, and the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that North Carolina’s district lines reflect some of “the most extreme levels of partisan bias” in the country.

But Donald Trump and his political operation directed GOP officials in the state to make a bad map worse, and obedient state legislators quickly complied. NBC News reported:

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a new congressional map that aims to further boost the party ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The state House on Wednesday approved the map, which could give Republicans an additional U.S. House seat in North Carolina, on a 66-48 vote, one day after the state Senate advanced it and nine days after GOP legislative leaders first announced their plans for a vote.

Republican state lawmakers were quite candid about their reasoning. By their own admission, this wasn’t about helping voters or ensuring fairness; it was about a raw display of partisan power.

“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: drawing [a] new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” state Sen. Ralph Hise, the Republican who prepared the map, told his colleagues this week.

North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein, lacked the legal authority to block this partisan scheme — under the state Constitution, a governor cannot veto redistricting plans — but he was nevertheless quick to shine a light on the scope and seriousness of the Republicans’ abuse.

Before this week, Democrats held four of the state’s 14 congressional seats, despite relative parity on overall vote totals, and that total will now drop to three as Republicans take steps to ensure GOP wins before voters can even cast their ballots.

North Carolina is also the third state this year to engage in mid-decade redistricting at the White House’s insistence, following related efforts in Texas (which redrew its map to give Republicans five additional seats) and Missouri (which gave Republicans one additional seat).

Put another way, Republicans across a trio of states recently decided to hand themselves seven U.S. House victories a year before the 2026 midterm elections.

The president’s gambit, however, is not advancing everywhere. Politico reported:

Indiana Senate Republicans say they do not have votes to pass mid-cycle redistricting despite a pressure campaign from the White House, according to a spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray — but President Donald Trump’s allies are still demanding the matter comes up for a vote in a special session. … The news comes just days after Trump held a phone call with reluctant members of the caucus.

A spokesperson for Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray summarized, “The votes aren’t there for redistricting.”

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There are still other states in which the issue is under consideration, including blue states such as California, where Democrats are scrambling to keep pace with the GOP scheme.

Stepping back, it’s worth appreciating the broader motivations behind this campaign.

The current GOP majority in the U.S. House is already tiny. If historical patterns hold true, Democrats are likely to make meaningful gains in the 2026 midterm cycle.

So now a multifaceted partisan scramble is underway, with Trump and his allies targeting mail-in ballots, voter-ID laws, the census, voter registrations and indefensible gerrymandering — not because it’s responsible and not because it’ll benefit the public, but because of Republicans’ desperation to hold onto power and prevent Democrats from gaining a toehold that might lead to some degree of accountability for the president.

The stakes, in other words, are high, and if the redistricting arms race can result in a net gain of a half-dozen or so seats for the GOP, it might very well keep Republicans in power for the rest of the decade — no matter what the American people actually want.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.