Both times he was inaugurated—January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2025—President Donald Trump entered the White House with Republican majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. However, Democratic strategists are hopeful that the 2026 midterms will play out similarly to the 2018 midterms, which saw Democrats flipping the House with a net gain of 40 seats.
Some Democrats have argued that the 2018 “blue wave” in Congress’ lower chamber could have been even larger if House districts had not been so heavily gerrymandered. It remains to be seen what will happen in 2026, but Trump is clearly hoping that next year’s midterms won’t be a repeat of 2018.
In an op-ed published by MSNBC on October 23, Symone D. Sanders Townsend—who co-hosts MSNBC’s *The Weeknight* with Alicia Menendez—alongside former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele, argues that although Trump faces some major disadvantages going into the 2026 midterms, he has devised a comprehensive game plan to try to steal the election.
Townsend warns, “As part of a broad, multi-state effort by allies of President Donald Trump, Republicans in North Carolina have taken the dramatic step to try to redraw their already gerrymandered congressional districts five years before the normal end-of-decade cycle. The goal is to secure one more Republican U.S. House seat in a desperate attempt to hang onto the House majority and protect Trump from political consequences. Keep in mind, this map was already unfairly drawn up.”
She continues, “The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave it an ‘F,’ with only one competitive district, ten safe Republican seats, and three safe Democratic seats. The new map would be even worse.”
This pattern is happening across the country. From Texas—where lawmakers passed a new map reportedly at Trump’s behest—to Missouri, where organizers are attempting to put an initiative on the ballot to overturn a recent gerrymander, to Indiana, where party leaders recently admitted they may not have the votes to push through a new map.
Townsend emphasizes that Republicans “wouldn’t be trying this if they were confident they could win in 2026. But rather than trying to persuade the American people that they have better ideas, they are trying to rig it so that they can win anyway.”
She warns that the representative ideal is under siege—but not defeated. “The people still hold the power. They always have. And the fight now is to make sure they can still exercise it freely.”
As Republicans attempt to redraw the lines of power, Townsend urges us to “listen for the echoes of our ancestors. Times have changed, but the struggle has not.”
https://www.rawstory.com/under-siege-inside-trumps-comprehensive-plan-to-steal-2026-midterms/
