The Wall Street Journal Slams Trump Over Failed Texas Gerrymander That Could Cost ‘Republicans Their House Majority’

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Wall Street Journal warned that President Donald Trump’s failed effort to push through a mid-decade gerrymander in Texas could ultimately cost “Republicans their House majority” in a new editorial.

After making note of a federal appeals court’s decision to strike down the new map drawn at Trump’s behest on the grounds that it constituted a racial gerrymander, the influential center-right newspaper rebuked the GOP effort altogether.

“Give that a second to sink in: The opinion says the Trump Administration wrongly claimed the first Texas map was a racial gerrymander, which prompted the state to attempt to undo it with an actual racial gerrymander. The ruling quotes Gov. Greg Abbott and GOP lawmakers saying they acted to address DOJ’s concerns,” observed the Journal before going on to also tsk-tsk the liberals who also challenged Texas’s original map.

“Texas Republicans will surely petition the Supreme Court to stay the panel’s decision. And its reasoning is convoluted and questionable, especially given that many GOP legislators in Texas admitted their partisan motives. Even so, it shows the risk that Republicans took by starting this mid-decade redistricting race to the bottom,” it continued. “The Democratic reaction to Mr. Trump’s Texas power play could erase most, if not all, GOP gains. Californians this month resoundingly passed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Prop. 50, which will give his party five more seats and buttress several vulnerable Democrats in what were previously competitive districts.”

“Mr. Trump’s attempt to bludgeon GOP state legislatures to redo their districts could turn out to be a misjudgment that costs Republicans their House majority,” concluded the editorial.

In another editorial published this August, the Journal called for “a law telling states they can’t redistrict mid-decade” to avoid “mutual assured destruction,” positing that “telling states they can only redistrict once per decade might de-escalate the gerrymander wars, and it would mainly ratify the status quo of recent years.”