I just got redistricted

It's very bad

Yesterday afternoon, two draft congressional maps were finally revealed by the majority party in our state legislature.

Both of them are, to be frank, absolutely brutal gerrymanders.

If either one becomes final - and we’ll know next week - I’m completely toast in Congress, as are two or three of my colleagues.

Here are the draft maps:

In both maps, my current district becomes an R+15 seat. That means the last Republican presidential candidate carried the seat by 15 points.

Just to be clear, it is completely impossible to win a seat that leans the other way by 15 points. Not even a remote chance.

I sent you an email two months ago giving you a heads up about this. Unfortunately, it went exactly the way we predicted.

Many of you will ask about the courts. Well, our state Supreme Court flipped in the last election and is now controlled by the same party as our state legislature, so the widespread expectation is there will be no relief there.

As for the federal courts, a few years ago the U.S. Supreme Court basically legalized political gerrymandering. However, certain forms of racial gerrymandering remain illegal. I’m sure there will be litigation on that front, but I don’t have a clear sense of timeline or likely outcome.

All that said, let me set it aside for a moment and tell you the most important thing I can:

Serving in this capacity has been the greatest honor of my life. I am so, so grateful to all of you who have followed along. No matter what, I’m going to continue to keep you posted.

Best,

Jeff