Donald Trump’s contentious strategy to game the 2026 midterms has blown up in his face after Democrats were able to win seats he had gerrymandered against them.
Last year, the president begged Republicans to redraw their congressional map in a highly controversial bid to squeeze out additional seats for the GOP as the House majority remained close.
But shortly after polls closed on Tuesday, Democrats in Florida had already won a string of seats that had been redrawn.
Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor held onto her 9th District seat, Rep. Jared Moskowitz managed to hold the 25th District seat, and Democrat Pia Dandiya won Florida’s 22nd District. By the end of the night, Democrat Darren Soto’s had also won Florida’s 9th District.
Trump also faces a setback in Texas, where Republicans redrew congressional boundaries in a bid to pick up five additional seats launched the redistricting war last year.
One of them was redrawn in the hope of ousting Democratic incumbent Vicente Gonzalez against Republican challenger Eric Flores.
But Gonzalez managed to hold onto the district on Election Day and remained in a double-digit lead as the results came in.
Another was in Texas 15th District, where Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz was defeated by her Democratic opponent Bobby Pulido.
And down in Texas’ 28th Disrict, Rep. Henry Cuellar was also able to hold onto his seat.
Over in North Carolina, a similar situation played out in the state’s 1st Congressional District, where Democratic Rep. Don Davis managed to keep his gerrymandered seat.
Democrats in Washington quickly blasted the GOP’s attempts to redraw districts in Florida to help Republicans as they celebrated a string of wins.
DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene blasted the attempts to take out candidates through gerrymandering.
Trump’s redistricting plan was viewed as an attempt to cheat the system.
It also started a redistricting arms race, with California immediately vowing to fight “fire with fire” by announcing a similar plan to mitigate the losses for Democrats.
“California Democrats will not allow Trump’s Republican Party to rig the system and take permanent control of the U.S. House of Representatives,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said at the time.
The failure of Trump’s redistricting plan was one of many humiliations for the president and his party, with Democrats seizing control of the Senate and the House after a string of extraordinary Senate upsets in states that were supposed to be safely Republican.
In the biggest shock of the night, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in traditionally deep-red Texas, to become the first Texas Democrat elected to Senate in 32 years. Late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline, was also defeated in South Carolina.
In North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley in a seat Republicans had long considered reliably red. And in the traditional GOP stronghold of Kansas, pastor Adam Hamilton beat MAGA candidate Mike Rogers. Hamilton is the first Democrat elected to Senate from the state since 1932.
