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Curling and trimming: Republicans have come up with a way to win congressional elections
Both major American parties have begun preparations for the midterm congressional elections in 2026. According to polls, the Democrats still have a slight advantage. The Republicans intend to solve this problem preemptively and for this they are going to redraw the map of electoral districts so that it will bring them additional mandates. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Redraw maps
The Republican Party has begun preparations for the congressional elections, which will be held in a year and a half. According to political traditions, the president's party usually loses seats in midterm elections in the lower house.
Republicans currently have 53 votes in the 100-seat Senate and 219 out of 435 in the House of Representatives. According to electoral analyst George Elliott Morris, the Conservatives are now 2.3% behind the Democrats.
In an effort to maintain control over both chambers, the ruling party decided to use its available administrative resources by resorting to the so—called gerrymandering, a technology of slicing electoral districts to improve election results.
It was invented in the United States at the end of the 19th century so that the compactly living colored minority would not get into representative government.
The Republicans started with the traditionally "red" state of Texas, dividing the districts in those areas of Dallas, Austin and Houston that tend to Democrats. This way they can get five additional places.
Texas lawmakers observe the counting of votes in the fifth session, Texas, USA, August 8, 2025
The Democrats in Texas are actively trying to thwart the Republicans and prevent the adoption of a new document. The Republicans have 88 out of 150 seats in the lower house of the state, and in order for the proposal to pass, it is necessary to assemble a quorum at the meeting — 2/3, or 100 legislators. As a result, more than 50 Democrats left the state on election day, and now they face criminal prosecution and loss of seats for their absence from voting.
Meanwhile, the presidential administration is putting pressure on other Republican-controlled states: Florida, Indiana, Ohio, New Hampshire and Missouri, convincing them to revise their maps and thereby increase the potential number of seats for the Republican Party.
Everyone's not doing well
The Democrats have resorted to the tactic of depriving the quorum twice in the last quarter of a century — in 2003 and 2021, but in both cases they lost, and as a result, the Republicans pushed their initiatives through parliament. So in this case, all that the Democratic Party is likely to be able to achieve is to delay the decision—making process for a short time.
In the Democratic states of New York and California, they promised to take retaliatory measures, which could also improve the party's performance. But, firstly, there is currently not the same unity among Democrats as among Republicans, and secondly, in some democratic states, including New York and California, independent commissions are engaged in cutting districts, which have repeatedly rejected such proposals.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 40%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. This is the lowest figure for the entire second term of his presidency.
The survey data showed that Americans ambiguously assess the actions of the head of state in the field of economics and immigration policy, believing that he uses very aggressive methods.
However, the Democrats are no better off. As CNN analyst Aaron Blake noted, the party needs an urgent rebranding. The author believes that if they do not do anything, they will miss their chance. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Democratic Party now has the lowest ratings in the last 35 years.
"Their image has reached a historic low, showing that as many as 63% of voters in the United States view them negatively. Ordinary Americans believe that Republicans are better able to handle most of the issues that determine the outcome of the election," the publication says.
What do the experts think
Sergey Nevolin, an American political scientist, explained that there are two main ways of gerrymandering.
— The first one is splitting, which involves dividing a group of voters with similar political views between different districts. This happens most often in large cities, where more liberal citizens are concentrated. Instead of making several purely urban districts, where the liberals would most likely win, the city is being split into several pieces in order to combine them with the surrounding conservative suburbs and rural areas. Thus, the conservatives weaken the importance of the votes of urban residents and get the opportunity to deprive them of representation," the political scientist explained.
According to the expert, the second method is packaging, which accommodates as many voters with similar political views as possible in as few districts as possible.
— A party whose electorate is so "packed" is guaranteed to win such districts, but will lose the opportunity to compete in all other districts. This can give rise to huge ugly worms that can reach across half the state. Until 2024, there was a similar district in Louisiana, for example — local Republicans drew it in such a way that it covered most of the liberal districts in the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and all other districts thus became as safe as possible for the Trump party, the expert says.
US President Donald Trump speaks at a reception with Republican members of Congress in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, July 22, 2025
Elena Panina, director of the RUSSTRAT Institute for International Political and Economic Strategies, notes that the Democratic Party still hopes to beat Trump in the midterm congressional elections.
— The prospects of the Republican Party of the USA do not seem very bright in the midterm congressional elections in 2026. The liberal press diligently inflates the failures of the current administration and pumps up the information field with narratives about the need to support the Democratic Party. CNN is especially trying (according to Trump's classification, Fake News), which is agitating Americans to be more active in order not to miss the victory, the political scientist believes.
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