Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said he is considering redrawing the state’s congressional districts, a move that could reshape Maryland’s lone Republican-held seat, 7 News reports.

“President Donald Trump said Monday that the Justice Department plans to sue California over legislation aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional maps — an initiative by Democrats to counter Republican-driven efforts in Texas to remake its map,” the Washington Post reports.

Nate Silver: “Democrats don’t merely have to reciprocate — tit-for-tat might be a game-theory optimal strategy over the long run, but it doesn’t work as well if you’re always a half-step behind. They should also consider acting preemptively, something few Democrats other than Beto O’Rourke of all people have dared to suggest.”

“In the long run, voters could turn against aggressive gerrymandering, especially if they see their longstanding moderate members of Congress replaced by partisan hacks. But to change that requires Congressional action, a new court, or a constitutional amendment — and all of those require winning elections. Democrats can’t be too proud to play by the rules of the game as they’ve so clearly been established under Roberts: they might even come out ahead.”

Molly Ball: “The upshot of the redistricting wars looks likely to benefit Republicans overall. And the episode seems fated to stand as yet another illustration of Trump’s willingness to use his stranglehold over his party to maximize his power, polarizing the national landscape and trampling long-held norms in the process, and leaving the opposition dazed.”

Sam Wang finds the Texas gerrymander of its congressional map is the worst of the last 50 years.

“If this map stands, it will be because the Supreme Court is ready to discard what is left of the Voting Rights Act. And Texas’s record will enter the history books.”

A new UC Berkeley poll in California finds asked about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push for mid-cycle redistricting: 46% said it was a good idea, while 36% said it was a bad idea.

Slightly more, 48%, said they would vote in favor of the temporary gerrymandering efforts if it appeared on the statewide special election ballot in November. Nearly a third said they would vote no, while 20% said they were undecided.

National Journal: The California legislature passed new Democratic-drawn congressional maps Thursday, sending the new district lines to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature. But unlike a similar redistricting push passed by the Texas legislature this week, lawmakers won’t have the final word on the new lines. The proposed map instead will appear before California voters in a November special election. Their approval is far from certain.”

“The uncertainty over the final map has put candidates in a bind as they contemplate where to campaign and invest resources more than a year away from the midterms.”

“Ratcheting up the pressure in the escalating national fight over control of Congress, the California Legislature on Thursday approved a November special election to ask voters in November to redraw the state’s electoral lines to favor Democrats and thwart President Trump’s far-right policy agenda,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The ballot measure, pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state and national Democratic leaders, is the latest volley in a national political brawl over electoral maps that could alter the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections and the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

President Trump signaled on Truth Social that Missouri Republicans are moving ahead with a mid-cycle redistricting.

Said Trump: “The Great State of Missouri is now IN. I’m not surprised. I won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!”

Missouri Independent: Missouri GOP leader says lawmakers will start with a congressional map drawn in D.C.

“Donald Trump has strong-arming Congress down to a science. Now his redistricting gambit is putting his methods through a stress test,” Politico reports.

“It’s a strategy of intensifying levels of private coercion and public threats of consequence, driven by Trump and amplified by aides and allies behind closed doors and through the online MAGA echo chamber: White House visits, calls from the president, online insults and even primary threats.”

“The more-stick-than-carrot approach has delivered Trump major wins in Washington by helping him barrel through initial GOP resistance to controversial Cabinet picks and a politically perilous policy package in a stunningly short turnaround.”

A new Politico-UC Berkeley Citrin Center survey found that 70 percent of Democrats believe gerrymandering is “never acceptable.”

But a strong majority of Democratic voters across the country think California Democrats should “fight back” and create more favorable House districts if Texas Republicans do, embracing the exact idea likely to go before California voters.

“The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday approved a new congressional map crafted to hand five additional U.S. House seats to the GOP over fierce opposition from Democrats, who cast the plan as a racially discriminatory attempt by President Donald Trump to stack the deck in next year’s midterm election,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“The House adopted the map, 88 to 52, along party lines. A Senate panel advanced a similar map Sunday, and the full chamber was expected to send the new lines to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk later this week.”

New York Times: “The redrawing of Texas’ map was only the first battle in what is likely to be a bruising and protracted coast-to-coast clash over redistricting between states led by Republicans and those led by Democrats over the coming months.”

Former president Barack Obama on Tuesday said he supports California Democrats’ moves to redraw congressional districts to offset similar efforts from Texas Republicans, the Washington Post reports.

Said Obama: “I wanted just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas, and take it to the voters and see what happens.”

He added: “But I want to be very clear: Given that Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House that is effectively saying, ‘Gerrymander for partisan purposes so we can maintain the House despite our unpopular policies, redistrict right in the middle of a decade between censuses’ — which is not how the system was designed — I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this.”

“Texas House Democrats on Wednesday plan to offer an amendment that would block a Republican redistricting effort until the complete release of the Jeffrey Epstein files,” Axios reports.

“The Democratic effort, which aims to put new political pressure on the Trump administration regarding his association with Epstein, is sure to fail in the Republican-controlled Legislature.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s longtime pollster says his bid “to redraw California’s congressional seats to create more Democrat-friendly districts has a 22-point advantage in support among the state’s voters,” 57% to 35%, Axios reports.

“Voters’ support appears to have increased as they’ve learned more about the measure… A July survey had found that 51% favored Newsom’s redistricting push.”

“One by one, Indiana’s Republican U.S. representatives are coming out in support of redistricting in Indiana, weeks after Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Indianapolis,” the Indianapolis Star reports.

“The pressure campaign on X mounted at the same time that state House Republicans met privately off Statehouse grounds to discuss President Donald Trump’s push to redraw maps mid-decade, which to date has proven unpopular among the state lawmakers.”