‘Literally no way’: Idea of redrawing WA’s congressional map gets bipartisan brush off

As they seek to recapture control of the U.S. House, top Democrats are looking at how to redraw congressional maps in blue states to win more seats in 2026.

Could it happen here in Washington, where Democrats already hold eight of the state’s 10 House seats?

Almost certainly not, say those critical to unlocking the redistricting process.

The main reason is that it would require a two-thirds majority in the state House and Senate to reconvene the state’s bipartisan Redistricting Commission. That can’t be attempted until the next session in January unless Gov. Bob Ferguson summons lawmakers back sooner.

“There is no there, there. There’s literally no way to get the results they are talking about before the 2026 election,” said Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle. “We have already done our share to get Democrats in the House. There’s no juice to squeeze in the lemon here.”

House Majority Leader Joe Fitzbibbon, D-West Seattle, agreed. “It’s not on the table for us,” he said.

“We have an 8-2 delegation. It would take some very creative map drawing to get to 9-1. There’s no chance Republicans would be interested in helping us,” Fitzbibbon added.

He’s right.

House Republicans will not supply votes needed to reconvene the commission or try to abolish it, and “will not consent to a special session to gerrymander congressional maps,” said House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn.

If Democrats still try to amend the map legislatively, they will get sued and lose, he said.

“This is not a serious proposal,” Stokesbary said. “I hope Democrats try so the rest of us can have a good laugh and realize Democrat leadership is as dumb as their base thinks they are.”

Drawing a line

CNN reported Sunday that U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, and other Democrats are discussing how to counter what’s unfolding in Texas.

There, President Donald Trump is publicly pushing the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to redraw district maps to garner more GOP wins to shore up the party’s majority in Congress. It is one of the issues Texas lawmakers are expected to tackle in a 30-day special session that began Monday.

“We are absolutely going to respond,” U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told CNN on Monday.

But DelBene, of Medina, demurred when pressed on whether that response would be trying to redraw maps in Democratic strongholds like Washington and California.

In Washington, Republican U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner hold safe seats in the 4th and 5th congressional districts respectively, both located east of the Cascades.

“In order to turn one more congressional district into a winnable seat, Democrats would need to slash through counties, communities and natural geography in order to unite Spokane, Pullman, Walla Walla, Pasco and Yakima into a single district,” Stokesbary said. “The resulting Frankenmap would make Picasso look like a child drawing stick figures.”

Another approach might be to redraw the 3rd Congressional District to be safer for Democrats.

Republicans held it for more than a decade until 2022, when Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Republican Joe Kent in one of the year’s biggest political surprises. Her 2,629-vote win was confirmed in a machine recount that Kent requested.

When the two faced each other again last year, Gluesenkamp Perez won by nearly 15,000 votes.

But the 3rd District still leans Republican. President Donald Trump won it in each of his presidential runs.

Always a challenge

Redistricting isn’t cheap. The 2020 process cost about $2.65 million. It can be messy, as the most recent commission demonstrated.

The four voting members — two Democrats and two Republicans — agreed on final contours for the state’s 49 legislative and 10 congressional districts a few minutes past their Nov. 15, 2021 deadline. The state Supreme Court in December decided to allow the tardy documents to be sent to the Legislature for final approval.

Then came a lawsuit that argued the drawing of a legislative district in central Washington violated federal law by impairing the ability of Latino voters to participate equally in elections. A federal judge agreed and, in early 2024, approved new boundaries for the 15th Legislative District in the Yakima Valley, and several surrounding districts, that are in place now.

Opponents appealed. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing in March and a ruling could be issued before the end of the year. Whoever loses might ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.

In response to reports that Democrats may look to redraw maps in Washington, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said Monday that no one had contacted his office, and it would be “very difficult” to pull off given the way the process is handled.

“It would be incredibly expensive and time-consuming to attempt any redistricting efforts in Washington without an active Redistricting Commission and with the 2026 midterms on the horizon,” he said.

This story was originally published in the Washington State Standard.