JuicyTalk
Barack Obama and Donald Trump are squaring off over Republicans’ push to remap two red states, with the former Democratic president fundraising against his successor’s effort to maintain control over Congress next year, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
Obama will headline an August fundraiser in Martha’s Vineyard for a Democratic redistricting group that’s fighting the GOP-led efforts in Texas and Ohio, per the invitation.
The dinner and discussion — which will benefit the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates — is in response to Texas Republicans angling to redraw their state’s maps to more heavily favor their party ahead of the midterms. Also attending the event are NDRC chair Eric Holder, who was Obama’s attorney general, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Obama’s involvement in the fundraiser underscores the importance of the issue for Democrats, who have a chance to retake control over the House next year, after losing both chambers of Congress and the White House in 2024. Trump, recognizing his party’s slim hold on the House, is pressuring Republicans to take an aggressive approach to redrawing congressional maps in at least two states.
In addition to Texas, the president is insisting Republicans in Ohio — which is legally required to redraw its maps — aggressively redistrict the state to maximize GOP majority districts.
The NDRC and its affiliated 501(c)(3) has worked to implement a nationwide redistricting strategy for Democrats and has backed lawsuits in a number of states to stop Republican gerrymanders. The group plans to back state-level electoral campaigns in 13 states through 2026. It’s also funded legal challenges related to redistricting since Holder founded it in 2017.
A spokesperson for the organization would not provide a fundraising target for the upcoming Obama soiree.
Obama has long shown an interest in redistricting — minimally a once-per-decade process to respond to population shifts recorded in the U.S. Census, and one that is rife with partisan politics. He has deep ties to the NDRC and remains close with Holder. His first fundraiser after leaving office was for the group, as was his first fundraiser after the 2020 election. Obama hosted an event that netted $1.5 million for the group in 2023, POLITICO reported at the time.
The former president has so far made few public appearances during Trump’s second term, and the Aug. 19 fundraiser is just his second fundraiser this year.
It comes as Trump has urged Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to get the legislature to improve the number of GOP-held seats in the state to as many as five additional ones as Democrats make a play to protect their turf and fight for a Senate seat in the Lone Star State. State lawmakers began a special legislative session aimed at doing so earlier this week, and it’s still unclear what map they will adopt.
If the race for the House is as close as it was last year, the Texas seats could determine which party controls the chamber.
So far, Democrats have struggled to respond to Texas and Ohio other than sounding the alarm. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been loudly floating options for gerrymandering in his own state, but electoral and legal hurdles persist. And New York lawmakers haven’t been interested in pursuing a redraw.
The Republican strategy is not without risk.
As Democrats continue to warn, by redrawing maps mid-cycle, the GOP stands to spark backlash or potentially draw districts in a way that doesn’t account for new voters, thereby inadvertently helping Democrats. But as the GOP barrels toward next year’s elections, it is exploring every avenue to maintain its razor-thin majority.
