With few options left in redistricting, Democrats ramp up affordability message

Where do House Democrats go next?

That’s the big question facing party leaders in the wake of last week’s ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that killed a new House map designed to give Democrats a big boost in November’s midterms.

Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Democratic leaders are vowing a full-court press featuring new redistricting efforts in blue states, new lawsuits against gerrymandered maps in red states, and a renewed promise to fight for judicial, electoral and campaign finance reforms if they seize power in the next Congress. 

The House Democratic Caucus will huddle as a group Thursday in the Capitol to chart its next steps on each front. And party leaders insist the Virginia ruling, while a setback, is no permanent barrier to achieving their goals. 

“We remain undeterred,” Jeffries wrote Monday in a letter to fellow Democrats. “Our effort to forcefully push back against the Republican redistricting scheme will not slow down. We are just getting started.”

Their options, however, are scarce, given the short window remaining before November. 

On the redistricting front, the shrinking timeline means the opportunity for additional blue states to redraw their lines this year has been essentially exhausted, even as a small handful of GOP-led states are expected to alter their maps in the coming weeks with eyes on eliminating Democratic seats. 

On the litigation side, the conservative lean of the U.S. Supreme Court — where the various state lawsuits might eventually land — predicts that Republicans ultimately will win the redistricting arms race, which was instigated by President Trump to protect the GOP’s House majority in the next Congress.

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ promise to overhaul the judicial and electoral systems can’t be realized until they have power — next year, at the earliest. 

The accumulation of imposing factors, to be sure, has not eliminated the Democrats’ chances of flipping control of the lower chamber in November. In........

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