Introduction

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral maps to favor one political party over another. When redrawing maps, the party in power will use two strategies: packing and cracking. Packing is when a party tries to fit in as many of their likely voters into a district, whereas cracking is the splitting up of opposition voters into several districts. This often results in districts that have odd shapes that make it confusing for constituents to determine which district they live in. While this has taken place throughout the course of the United States’ history, this issue has been exacerbated by the development of computer programs designed with the sole purpose of creating districts that are as gerrymandered as possible. 

Gerrymandering’s History and Current State in the U.S.

Throughout the United States’ history as an electoral democracy, it has been plagued by partisan gerrymandering. While the practice is said to have started in the U.S. during the late 18th century, it gained notoriety in 1812 after the Boston Gazette attacked then-Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry for signing into law a map for the state senate that favored the Jeffersonian Republicans. Gerrymandering only grew in use across the country, as it was one of many methods used to disenfranchise black voters once they were awarded the right to vote after the Civil War. The practice was used almost explicitly to perpetuate racial discrimination until the Supreme Court attempted to crack down on the issue in the 1960s by issuing decisions requiring all congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations and mandating that redistricting take place every ten years following the census. However, the Supreme Court did not determine that gerrymandering in all forms is illegal, but rather that drawing maps on the basis of race was not permissible. This has allowed state legislatures to continue to create maps that are exclusively beneficial to one party. 

In 2025, President Trump called on Republicans in the Texas state legislature to draw a new Congressional map five years early that would give the GOP five more seats in the 2026 midterm election. In retaliation, states controlled by Democratic majorities also began to work on mid-decade redistricting to offset gains made by Republicans. Today, multiple states have already redistricted ahead of the midterms, with several more in the process of doing the same. As a result, the value of millions of votes will be diminished in efforts by each party to consolidate power. 

The Dangers of Gerrymandering on Electoral Democracy

On its most basic level, gerrymandering is problematic for democracy, as by design, it results in representation that does not accurately reflect the preferences of the electorate. The purposeful marginalization of some constituents often results in diminishing levels of political interest, a phenomenon that can be particularly harmful for democracy. Electoral democracy’s survival is dependent on individuals feeling as if their voice is being represented within the political system, because without said feeling, a government can quickly lose its legitimacy, as that legitimacy is derived from the consent of its citizens. 

Furthermore, in gerrymandered states, the winner of the primary is generally presumed to be the winner of the election. As primary election turnout is typically lower, this puts the power of deciding a representative into a smaller number of hands. Additionally, those who participate in primaries are typically more politically engaged and thus have stronger-held ideologies that are farther from the center, increasing the likelihood of a gerrymandered district electing an extremist candidate. This can also disincentivize these ideologically extreme candidates from appealing to as many general election voters as possible, as they can depend on their base and those who are party loyal to officially vote them into office. New gerrymandering tactics provide evidence to this claim, as Harvard researchers found that, following the 2020 census, new districts were gerrymandered not to flip seats, but rather to keep seats safe. It was found that representatives from these districts were less responsive to the desires of their constituencies. When elected officials are immune from challenges to their position, it does not provide citizens with an opportunity to hold their officials accountable. 

Creating guardrails to political expression, like gerrymandering, weakens the vertical accountability that comes with operating a democracy. This creates unnecessary strain on the horizontal accountability of the U.S. democratic system, but as extremist politicians have more opportunities to take office, it will become increasingly difficult for checks to be used. 

Gerrymandering and It’s Relationship to the Trump Administration

On its own, gerrymandering has a complicated relationship with the functioning of a healthy democracy; however, when coupled with the current Trump administration’s history of bypassing checks on its power, the prospect of increased gerrymandering in the U.S. is concerning. Recent polls reflect a growing concern over how Trump responds to checks on his power, demonstrating that many Americans believe that the President has begun to push the bounds of his executive power too far, which could have negative implications for how those individuals perceive the state of the U.S. democracy. In response to Indiana Republicans who were unwilling to gerrymander their state, Trump threatened to support primary challengers who would vote for redistricting efforts. While this would be problematic due to the dangers of primaries in gerrymandered districts that were described above, it is also hard to imagine that Trump would stop here in his effort to get his maps passed. Some political action committees (PACs) that help to fund these races have already indicated that they would only support candidates who are also backed by the President,  thus skewing the way these races would normally be funded. 

Conclusion

Gerrymandering has been commonplace throughout the United States’ history, and its use has only become more prevalent as years have gone on. Gerrymandering is concerning for the health of the U.S.’s democracy, as it devalues the voice of voters and leaves the door open for more extremists to win office. However, when accompanied by the current administration’s tendencies to ignore checks on power, calls to gerrymander more districts are extremely concerning for democracy in the United States.