While our president sows new seeds of doubt about the nation's elections, don't overlook another equally significant shift underway: turning what has traditionally been a once-a-decade process—redistricting after each U.S. census—into one that can be redone whenever political winds change and whichever party holds the majority decides it should.
Welcome to the world of redistricting, 2026 style.
Having worked under Georgia's Gold Dome and later on Capitol Hill during both Democratic and Republican majorities, I have watched Team Red and Team Blue redraw political maps to their advantage following the U.S. census.
In 1991, Georgia's Democratic-controlled General Assembly created the then-new 11th Congressional District, a map that resembled a Rorschach inkblot stretching along the I-20 corridor from Decatur to Savannah.
State Rep. Cynthia McKinney won the seat in 1992, becoming the first Black woman elected to represent Georgia in Congress. The district was approximately 64% Black when she was first elected.
McKinney won re-election in 1994, but several constituents challenged the district boundaries in court. In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Johnson that the district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because race had been the predominant factor in drawing its boundaries.
Georgia lawmakers returned in a special session to redraw the congressional map. McKinney's district became the 4th Congressional District, centered primarily in DeKalb County. Although she criticized the new map, whose racial makeup remained similar, she was re-elected in 1996, 1998 and 2000 before losing the 2002 Democratic primary.
Political parties exist to advance ideas, policies and candidates. That's their purpose. But using sophisticated voter data—including voting history and demographic information—to engineer legislative districts designed to preserve or expand political power at the municipal, county, state and federal levels crosses a different line.
Those are the kinds of political power plays President George Washington warned about in his farewell address, where he cautioned against the dangers of political factions.
Today, President Trump is urging Republican governors and legislatures in reliably Republican states to convene special sessions and redraw congressional districts in hopes of creating additional Republican seats and preserving the GOP majority in the U.S. House ahead of the midterm elections.
I may be whistling in the wind—or speaking to an audience still captivated by the Trump administration's calls to return to paper ballots and sharply limit voting by mail. Absentee voting can always be made more secure, and Georgia took an important step by requiring voter identification for absentee ballots.
But let's also remember why the U.S. House is often called "the people's chamber." The same principle applies to state legislatures and the local governments they create.
Politics will always be part of governing. We can't eliminate it. But we can insist that communities—not partisan advantage—come first when district lines are drawn.
That means respecting logical boundaries whenever possible, including city and county lines, major waterways and established metropolitan areas, instead of carving neighborhoods apart, splitting streets and dividing communities simply to gain a political edge.
As a political independent today, I notice whenever either party chooses the interests of "We the People" over the pursuit of greater power, influence or larger legislative majorities through aggressive partisan gerrymandering.
Perhaps that's a Pollyanna view.
Still, I believe voters across the political spectrum would welcome a process that puts communities ahead of politics.
Maps drawn to guarantee overwhelming partisan majorities too often produce more ideologically extreme officeholders, deepen political divisions and ultimately leave the people those districts were created to serve with less effective representation.
So put that in your district mapmaker.
Do better.