Trump’s plan to steal the midterm elections by allowing Red states to gain more seats in the Republican House was an ill-conceived attempt with major potential backfire from the moment it was launched.
The president assumed Democrats wouldn’t fight back. Trump also assumed that red states would line up across the country to do his bidding.
The Democrats fought back by following the same rules that Trump established. In California, Democrats raced for a new map that could give them five seats in the House of Representatives. In red states like Kansas and Indiana, Republicans refused to redraw their maps. Ohio Republicans rejected a full gerrymander in favor of a fairer map after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threatened them with a referendum.
The next biggest shoe to drop came in the purple state of Virginia, which would never produce such large margins as the California referendum, but which offered the Republican Party the best chance to end the crisis caused by Trump.
Polls showed the amendment to temporarily redraw the map until the 2030 census was close, and the vote was close, but ultimately Yes was projected to win, meaning Donald Trump may have cost Republicans another four House seats and their House majority.
The point that needs to be emphasized is that this is all a self-inflicted wound.
