"People thought, 'Well, Democrats are going to get shellacked in redistricting,
"People thought, 'Well, Democrats are going to get shellacked in redistricting,
they more or less managed to fight to a draw,'" says Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program.
congressional districts are redrawn to reflect population changes and ensure that each House lawmaker represents roughly the same number of people.
In 2020, Republicans controlled the drawing of 187 of 435 congressional districts in the House of Representatives
"The maps aren't great. There's not a lot of competition," says Li, who focuses on redistricting, voting rights and elections.
The 2020 redistricting appears to have yielded fewer competitive districts than ever.
"Over the last several decades, with each decennial redistricting process, we have seen fewer and fewer competitive districts.
"The more and more Americans who live in places where they feel like their political identity doesn't match the majority
Li says. "Because we still have residential segregation, it's easy to pack together or break apart communities of color, in order to change the partisan valence of maps."
State legislatures have traditionally been responsible for redrawing boundaries for both state and congressional districts.
"The U.S. is an outlier in the way that it draws its political districts.
Victor says. "It would also create the incentives for third political parties to operate and actually have a real probability of winning in some places.
And even though legislative maps are supposed to only be redrawn each decade, this round of redistricting might be far from over.