States of the Union

The Texas Redistricting FightWhat if politicians could choose their own voters instead of the other way around? That's the story at the heart of this episode — and in the summer of 2025, it exploded into one of the wildest political showdowns in recent memory.It started with a word that sounds about as exciting as a zoning board meeting: redistricting. But when the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Texas demanding that four congressional districts be redrawn, it set off a chain of events that drew in the White House, the FBI, two state supreme courts, and ultimately sent more than 50 lawmakers fleeing the state on planes.The goal, critics said, was straightforward: flip five House seats to Republicans — seats that could, by themselves, determine control of Congress heading into the 2026 midterms. The math, the legal arguments, the contradictions, and the scramble to stop it — it's all here.And here's the twist: almost none of it is unprecedented. Both parties have played this game. We'll hold everyone to the same standard.This is the Texas redistricting fight. Let's get into it.