Nolte: Hakeem Jeffries Concedes Defeat, Moves Gerrymander Battle to 2028

Sounds like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has conceded defeat in the 2026 redistricting battle, but like George Costanza and the Jerk Store, he’s already plotting his revenge in 2028.

If you take a deep breath, you can smell the failure laced with no small amount of humiliation…

“In advance of 2028, where we will have additional states that will come online, including but not limited to New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Maryland,” says Jeffries. “That’s at least seven states. We will be able to unleash a decisive and forceful response to what they are doing in the Deep South.”

He adds, “And I’m telling you right now we will, as several of those governors have already publicly indicated and as the Senate president in New Jersey just said earlier today.”

Beneath Hakeem’s feet is an $80 million pile of ash, which is what Democrats spent to lose their redistricting battle in Virginia.

So, let’s go through Hakeem’s list… The first number is the number of Democrat to Republican seats. Then we’ll compare the percentage of Democrat seats to the percentage of the vote President Trump received in each state:

• New York: 19D to 7R — Democrats hold 73.1 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 43.3 percent of the vote.
• New Jersey: 9D to 3R — Democrats hold 75 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 46.1 percent of the vote.
• Colorado: 4D to 4R — Democrats hold 50 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 43.1 percent of the vote.
• Washington: 8D to 2R — Democrats hold 80 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 39 percent of the vote.
• Oregon: 5D to 1R — Democrats hold 83.3 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 41 percent of the vote.
• Illinois: 14D to 3R — Democrats hold 82.4 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 43.5 percent of the vote.
• Maryland: 7D to 1R — Democrats hold 87.5 percent of the seats in a state where Trump earned 34.1 percent of the vote.

So, as you can see, other than Colorado, these states are already gerrymandered and rigged in the Democrat Party’s favor way out of proportion to the percentage of that state’s Democrat voters.

How much more damage can they really do?

A bigger question is, how much more damage can the Republican Party, a party that has been (until Trump came along) reluctant to follow the Democrat Party’s lead in pressing the gerrymander advantage.

One problem for Democrats is that in all of those states, their advantage is in the urban areas. How many more congressional districts, especially in a state the size of Illinois or New York, can Democrats attach to a Chicago or a New York City?

Democrats don’t have much juice left to squeeze. Republicans, however, if they grow a spine, have plenty of juice left. And those Republicans who refuse to grow a spine can expect to be quickly unemployed.