Politicians Deciding Who Their Voters Are Is Not Healthy for the Electoral Process: Panel

In the Supreme Court has approved California's new congressional map, as we just mentioned. Joining us live to discuss is our panel, former Democratic Congressman and President of Career Education Colleges and Universities, Jason Altmaier, along with attorney and political commentator David Pollak. Great to have you both with us tonight. David, let's start with you. Considering the similar ruling in Texas, does this even the playing field ahead of the midterms, in your opinion? You know, I don't see it as being a similar ruling in Texas. I'm really confused by the Supreme Court's actions here, because in Texas, you can redraw the congressional lines for political purposes. That's why you establish these congressional lines. But in California, they did it purely on racial reasons. I mean, that is the issue with what California did versus what Texas did. But look, none of that matters anymore because the Supreme Court has ruled there's no more appeal rights beyond the Supreme Court. So the question is now, what are the Republican states going to do to counteract California picking up some additional seats from this redistricting? Now, we've seen Texas make bold action early on and sort of set up this fight. Florida is now considering their redrawing. And I think they're probably pretty close with the governor in that state, suggested that he might call a special session of Congress in order to redraw those congressional lines, adding a few seats in that state. But now it's up to Republicans throughout all the states to ensure that we hold control of the House. Now, the big question is, will Republicans deliver? We've already seen some states decline to redraw their congressional lines. And so if Democrats are willing to do what it takes to win the House, Republicans must too, because 2026 is setting up to be one of the most important elections probably in modern history. Congressman, your thoughts. And 40% of Californians voted for President Trump in 24. Will this map be representative of all the viewpoints in the Golden State? The congressional reapportionment process is one of the worst aspects of our election system. And usually we only have to do this once every 10 years after the census and reapportionment is called for. Now, states are doing it in every opportunity that they get. It's not just a decennial situation. And when you have politicians deciding who their voters are, rather than voters deciding who their politicians are, that is not healthy for the process, whether it's Republicans or Democrats drawing those lines. When you look at what happened in California, they had a law that said you couldn't do partisan redistricting. And Governor Newsom proposed, along with a number of Democratic allies, a public referendum that passed. And now they have a new law. So they're able to redraw the lines this time. This is in response to Texas. Other states have done it. It's really bad for the system. And this is going to be a very important election, 2026. And the average off-year election for a first-term president going back to World War II, the out-of-power party picks up 24 seats. You talked about there's now a four-seat majority for Republicans in the House. So just on average, the likelihood of Democrats retaking the House are pretty good. And now you've added five pretty certain new Democratic seats on top of whatever would have happened anyway. So I can see why Republicans are very frustrated with this. David, just back to the previous point that you made about, you know, if the Democrats are going to do it, Republicans should, too. A bit of a point of contention in the state of Indiana, where President Trump was calling on the state legislature there to do so. They didn't. Now the, I don't know if it's the Speaker or the Senate leader there, President Trump's calling for a primary. I think there already may be one. In the state of Indiana, is there still time for them to revisit that before the midterms? Or is Indiana out of the question? It's so close now. I'm pretty sure Indiana's out of the question, especially if there's any litigation or any other political challenges. But the congressman's right. Leading up to a significant election like this, if we're running around trying to carve congressional districts out in order to gain advantages, we really are moving far away from the whole point of the House of Representatives to begin with. And it is a problem. I mean, this is where we are. We're in these knee-jerk, reactive political environments. And if they're doing it, we're doing it too type thing. The only issue is here though, this is a vital midterm election. And the congressman is correct. Republicans or the party in power generally does lose the House after the first term. History doesn't really apply here though, because I mean, this is one of the only times in history, the second time in history where you've had a non-consecutive second term president. So maybe it doesn't apply here. But I will say this, regardless of where the district lines are drawn, regardless of how many extra seats we have available to us as Republicans, unless Republicans start winning on messaging, unless Republicans can focus on those policies that are actually delivering wins for Americans, it's not gonna matter if we have 20 seats available to us or 50 seats available to us, because we're not gonna have the turnout necessary in order to keep those seats. We've seen several seats that we're supposed to hold flip in state elections. And so it doesn't matter really what these congressional districts are. What we really need is a coherent policy leading up to the midterms. And maybe we don't have to worry about seats plusing or minusing. We can just worry about winning on messaging and policy, where I believe Republicans are strong. Congressman. I think something to think about, this started in Texas and they drew their lines so that they would pick up five additional Republican seats and California responded by doing what they did. But what you have to watch out for when you draw those lines is you can go too far. And the way that you gain more seats is you take solid partisan districts on your side, let's say Republicans in the case of Texas, and you remove Republicans from those districts and place them in districts that aren't as solid so that you make them more Republican. But the problem is if you do that, you dilute the vote to an extent that if you have a wave election, which is very possible this fall, you could get more than you bargained for. And you should be careful what you wish for, because you could see those districts that you have weakened that used to be solidly partisan districts. Now, instead of having one Republican and one Democratic district, you have to kind of toss up districts that lean towards your party. But in a wave election, you could lose both. So these states that have redrawn the lines could end up with a situation where they're worse off than they were before if it's a wave election. Jason Altmaier, David Pollack, Congressman Jason Altmaier, former congressman, greatly appreciate you both joining us.