What is Redistricting?

It is a once-a-decade opportunity to claim our power in drawing political district boundaries.

Back in 2010 Republican party took control of many state governments and gerrymandered the districts in 2011. The result was immediate, election after election democrats won more votes, and yet Republicans kept their majority through 2018. It took Blue Wave, a massive mobilization of grassroots volunteers to win back the House majority.

As California's former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once said “Gerrymandering has created an absurd reality where politicians now pick their voters instead of the voters picking their politicians.”

Under the gerrymandered districts politicians do not need to represent their constituents. These gerrymandered districts have resulted disastrous policy consequences, leading to some of the most right-wing legislation in decades both in Congress and at the state level, including assaults on women’s health, suppressing the vote for people of color, failing to address climate change, and refusing to stand up to the epidemic of gun violence.

In 2017 to fix the problem President Barack Obama asked the 82nd Attorney General Eric Holder to chair the first-ever strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). At the same time Organizing for Action added a new goal to achieve "Fair and participatory democracy". After defending the ACA in 2017, and winning the House in 2018, OFA was dissolved in 2019, and its organizers were directed to help NDRC's grassroots campaign "All On The Line". This year we are focusing on redistricting and passing the "For the People Act" to end gerrymandering.