ROOKE: Virginia Redistricting Slapped GOP In The Face With Hard Truth
For decades, Republican populists have been handicapped by the so-called “principled conservative” wing of the Republican Party. Democratic success in Virginia redistricting teaches a lesson that old hats can no longer ignore.
In late 2025, it was predicted that Democrats would attempt to redraw their U.S. House of Representatives district maps in places like Virginia and California to give the party an advantage over Republicans in the 2026 midterms. That kicked off a nationwide effort by President Donald Trump and Republicans to do the same in GOP-controlled states, like Indiana, which has a Republican trio.
However, Indiana, while solidly red, is not controlled by populist Republicans, but rather by members who align closely with the failed version of the Republican Party, which was once led by elected officials like former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and former Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. These members have become a living meme, clutching their proverbial pearls and shouting about their so-called principles every time populists want to use the power granted to them by the people to govern. (Subscribe to Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
Indiana has nine House districts. Trump and the national Republican Party wanted Indiana to redistrict the state from a 7-2 Republican advantage to a 9-0 GOP sweep. Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun called a special session for congressional redistricting, and the effort passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 57 to 41, despite a handful of no votes from the Republican Party joining Democrats. However, the new map has not passed the state Senate.
Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray represented the Republican Party’s mutiny on behalf of “principled” Republicans against the populist Republicans’ redistricting plan. He said he “didn’t think it would be helpful to redraw our [Indiana’s] Mid-cycle congressional districts are the best way to achieve that goal,” adding that Republicans should focus on flipping districts like the current 1st Congressional District, which is trending red.
#BREAKING: Senate President Tem Rodric Bray says there aren’t enough votes to continue the mid-cycle redrawing of Indiana’s congressional maps and the Senate will not reconvene in December. pic.twitter.com/lNNgS2wJQh
– The Redistrict Network (@RedistrictNet) November 14, 2025
Fast forward to April 21. Republicans found themselves on the losing side of Democrats’ plan to eliminate 49 percent of their voters by changing the state map, shifting the Democratic-Republican split from 6-5 to a 10-1 Democratic supermajority.
Therein lies the lesson for Bray and Republicans like him. Either you use the power the voters gave you to carry out their will and mandate, or you sit back like the helpless fool that you are and watch the Democrats erase any chance for you to govern again.
Arguably, what Virginia Democrats accomplished goes well beyond what Trump and the populist movement asked of Bray. In 2024, Trump carried Indiana by nearly 20 points over former Vice President Kamala Harris. The gap was 58 to 39 percent for Trump versus Harris.
Virginia’s race was much closer. Harris only won Virginia by about 6 points. The home races were even closer. Democrats beat Republicans by less than 4 points (3.8) in the popular vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024. And yet Democrats have no problem with state redistricting because they know how to use power.
New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney explained this perfectly in an article on X, where she fights back against claims that Republicans started the Virginia redistricting fight. In fact, Democrats have been doing this for years in Democratic-controlled states, like New York.
“[Ari Fleischer] please stop saying Texas started this redistricting mess. New York has begun. After extreme gerrymandering by New York Democrats in 2022, completely ignoring the Independent Commission they created in 2014, the New York Court of Appeals has restored fairness,” Tenney said.
“Then the Democrats sued again in 2024 to overturn the Court of Appeals decision. They bullied two Court of Appeals judges and forced new Democrats to pass favorable maps and the Representatives lost 4 seats. In 2026 they AGAIN pursued the gerrymander and eliminated the Representative seat on Staten Island and sought even more power. The Supreme Court of the United States stopped this nonsense for now. Democrats plan to gerrymander again in 2024. “It’s a blood sport. Republicans must wake up and recognize this fact,” she continued, adding that Republicans must “do whatever it takes within the law to ensure that the citizens of this country win.”
.@AriFleischer please stop saying Texas started this redistricting mess. New York has begun. After extreme gerrymandering by New York Democrats in 2022, completely ignoring the Independent Commission they created in 2014, the New York Court of Appeals has restored fairness. Then the Democrats sued…
– Claudia Tenney (@claudiateney) April 22, 2026
In a perfect world, everyone would play fairly. And to some extent, I sympathize with the GOP’s pockets of pearls for their utopian view of the world. However, American politics is not run by good and honorable people. Democrats seem to grasp this reality and use it to their advantage every time they gain power.
And we’ve seen what happens to our country when Democrats are in charge. The United States becomes a base for the globalist regime. Americans are being stifled by high taxes and regulations that are causing a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the elites. The poor become even poorer. Our children’s classrooms are full of LGBTQ craziness and anti-white racist ideologies. Our girls are being attacked in bathrooms and locker rooms by male predators posing as women. Illegal immigrants are invading our borders, committing heinous crimes against innocent Americans. Wages are falling or stagnating, inflation is rising, and housing affordability is becoming increasingly out of reach.
These are the gospels of Democratic Party orthodoxy and the antithesis of what Republicans are supposed to stand for. There is no room for pretending that norms and principles play a role in a discussion where the other side has no intention of playing fair – unless clinging to conservative values is really just a way for these Republicans to cede their power to the Democrats, while continuing to wear the mask of the Republican Party. (ROOKE: Americans should brace for impact as conservatives lose control of the country’s steering wheel)
The lesson for so-called “principled conservatives” is actually quite simple. They can either voluntarily align themselves with the populist movement and help save America from the modern-day Bolsheviks in the Democratic Party, or they can cling to their standards like a life raft as the greatest country ever formed sinks into the ocean. But they need to understand that that won’t stop them from lining up to the wall with the rest of us. We will all face the same fate.
Follow Mary Rooke on X: @MaryRooke
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