Trump urges GOP to fight Pa. redistricting
President wants to take district map ruling to Supreme Court if necessary
WASHINGTON – President Trump waded into the myriad legal battles over how state legislatures draw lines for congressional districts Tuesday, urging Pennsylvania Republicans to go to the Supreme Court if necessary to fight a state court-ordered map that he says favors Democrats.
Saying an original Republican-drawn map was “correct,” Trump tweeted to Keystone State GOP members: “Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!”
Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court, with a Democratic majority, voted 4-3 Monday to impose a new map with redrawn congressional districts. Last month, the court ruled that state Republicans who approved an earlier map engaged in gerrymandering by putting partisan interests above neutral criteria.
Pennsylvania Republicans had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the state court’s initial ruling, but the justices declined to take the case. GOP members now say they will head to federal court to block the new map.
In the 2016 election, Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate since 1988 to win Pennsylvania as he edged Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by less than 1 percentage point.
Democrats said that although the state is closely divided and often tilts Democratic in presidential races, Republicans now hold 72% of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, thanks to gerrymandering. Gerry- mandering is the drawing of district lines to improve the election chances of one party over another.
“Donald Trump is literally begging Republicans to keep the Pennsylvania map rigged to help elect Republicans — putting his party ahead of the country,” Democratic consultant Jesse Ferguson said. “He’d rather have Republicans who will protect him in Congress than have a Congress that represents the voters of Pennsylvania.”
The high court’s greater influence could come in the next few months with rulings on partisan maps drawn by Republicans in Wisconsin and Democrats in Maryland. Those decisions, in turn, could affect many of the 37 states where state lawmakers, rather than commissions, draw the lines.