“Democrats braced for disaster when state legislatures began redrawing congressional maps, fearing that Republican dominance of statehouses would tilt power away from them for the next decade,” the AP reports.

“But as the redistricting process reaches its final stages, that anxiety is beginning to ease.”

“For Democrats, the worst case scenario of losing well over a dozen seats in the U.S. House appears unlikely to happen. After some aggressive map drawing of their own in states with Democratic legislatures, some Democrats predict the typical congressional district will shift from leaning to the right of the national vote to matching it, ending a distortion that gave the GOP a built-in advantage over the past five House elections.”

“Republican majorities in the House and Senate overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) vetoes of bills that redraw the state’s House and U.S. Congressional District maps on a busy Thursday that also included impassioned speeches, lawsuits and a new wrinkle that rolls key election deadlines into the discussion over the new maps,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

Politico: “Republicans have mostly played it safe in the states that have completed redistricting so far, locking in the status quo with durable maps that are more likely to withstand demographic changes and legal muster. But amid a growing sense of frustration that the party is squandering its advantage, some in the GOP are advocating for a new level of ruthlessness. It’s a stance driven by a desire to appease an activist base, bolster ambitious politicians and gain retribution against audacious Democratic gerrymandering in blue strongholds.”

Nathaniel Rakich: “Many analyses of congressional redistricting so far have tried to sum the situation up into a single sentence. While we understand the urge, it’s increasingly the case that there is no one takeaway from the 2021-22 redistricting cycle.”

“In reality, the picture is complicated: Democrats have gained seats based on partisanship alone … but Republicans have gained when you factor in which party currently holds the seat. The House map’s long-term Republican bias has lessened somewhat … but it’s still not an even playing field. Swing seats are getting redrawn to be safer for Democrats … but light-red seats are also being redrawn to be safer for Republicans.”

“The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state’s congressional district map Friday, saying Republicans violated the Ohio Constitution by drawing districts that favored GOP candidates,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.

“Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was, once again, a key vote in the 4-3 decision to reject the map, which could have given Republicans as much as a 12-3 advantage in a state that voted for President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump, twice.”

“The South Carolina House on Wednesday adopted a controversial congressional map that could cement a 6-1 Republican majority in the U.S. House for years to come,” the Columbia State reports.

“The Ohio Supreme Court struck down GOP-drawn state House and Senate maps as unconstitutional gerrymandering in a 4-3 decision Wednesday, sending the Ohio Redistricting Commission back to the drawing board,” the Columbus Dispatch reports.

“Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was the key vote, breaking with her party to rule against the maps.”

A panel of judges ruled that North Carolina’s new congressional district maps, which would give Republicans a 10-4 advantage, are constitutional, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

“The GOP-drawn maps would give Republicans a built-in advantage in future elections—but none of the reasons why challengers said the maps are unconstitutional stand up to legal scrutiny, the judges ruled.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) “gave a negative review of the House-passed plan to redistrict the state’s two congressional districts, suggesting it would create seats that would be too partisan-leaning,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.

Said Sununu: “I don’t love it. I don’t think it’s going to be the plan that ends up on my desk.”

“The comments threw a monkey wrench into a process Republican state party leaders hoped would contain little dissent within GOP ranks since they hold sway in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, state Senate and the corner office.”

“Tennessee Republicans will present plans to split booming Nashville and Davidson County into multiple congressional districts, paving the way for the party to dilute its existing Democratic voter base and gain an additional congressional seat,” the Tennessean reports.

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “There was a flurry of redistricting activity over the holidays, with 7 additional states finalizing their congressional maps.”

“Republicans are up a little overall in the roughly two-thirds of completed districts, while Democrats would have to sweep the Toss-ups — a very difficult task — just to achieve rough parity with what they currently hold in these states.”

“One of the country’s most gerrymandered political maps has suddenly been replaced by one of the fairest,” the New York Times reports.

“A decade after Michigan Republicans gave themselves seemingly impregnable majorities in the state Legislature by drawing districts that heavily favored their party, a newly created independent commission approved maps late Tuesday that create districts so competitive that Democrats have a fighting chance of recapturing the State Senate for the first time since 1984.”

“Michigan’s redistricting commission voted to adopt new congressional districts Tuesday, creating political boundaries for the state’s 13 U.S. House districts for the next decade,” the Detroit Free Press reports.

Politico: “Michigan’s new congressional map likely sets up three battleground seats for the next decade, while teeing up a Democratic member-on-member clash between Reps. Haley Stevens and Andy Levin.”

“The Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday finalized the state’s new redistricting maps, bending to criticism that congressional representation for the Richmond region was split too many ways by keeping together the western Richmond suburbs,” the Richmond Times Dispatch reports.

Paul Waldman: “It’s still too early to say how all this will turn out, and the 2022 elections are also an uncertainty. But the big picture, as Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report says, is that ‘redistricting is shaping up to be close to a wash.’”

“And as Joel Wertheimer predicted at Data for Progress, ‘when redistricting is finished, more districts in 2022 will be to the left of Joe Biden’s 4.5-point national margin against Trump than in 2020.’ This is about as good an outcome as Democrats could have hoped for.”

“Arizona, one of the most bitterly divided swing states, finalized a new congressional map that could hand the GOP six of its nine congressional districts in 2022,” Politico reports.

“Democrats, who currently control five of the state’s nine seats, are probably staring down a short-term loss in the current political climate. But the new map, drawn over several months by a bipartisan panel of commissioners and adopted unanimously, ensures the state will continue to be a top House battleground for the next decade.”