At Daily Kos Elections, one of our foremost concerns is gerrymandering. Yes, it’s true that both sides try to draw maps in their favor, but following the 2010 census and the GOP wave election that same year, Republican map-makers gained control of the process in an overwhelming number of states. That advantage allowed Republicans to create some true monstrosities, cementing their hold on Congress and in legislatures nationwide. But there’s nothing that brings gerrymandering home quite like showing the hideous creations that emerge from the obscure process of redistricting, so we’re embarking on a tour of some of the very worst Republican gerrymanders in the nation.
We start in in the Philadelphia suburbs with the beast you see above: Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, which just might take the prize for the most gerrymandered district of all 435 in the House of Representatives. Republican Rep. Pat Meehan first won this seat in 2010 when it leaned slightly in the Democratic direction (and didn’t look so surrealist), but Republicans swiftly redrew it to their advantage during redistricting. Mitt Romney carried the district by 50-49, and even though Hillary Clinton did better than Barack Obama in this well-educated district and likely won it, Meehan easily prevailed 60-40 over an underfunded Democratic nominee in 2016.
The 7th is part of an overall Republican gerrymander of the Keystone State that’s allowed them to hold 13 of the state’s 18 seats since 2012, even though Barack Obama won Pennsylvania by 5 points four years ago and Donald Trump just barely carried the state this year. And what makes the 7th so gerrymandered isn’t just its crazy shape, but its impact too. We proposed a set of nonpartisan congressional maps for every state, and without gerrymandering, a reasonable version of Pennsylvania’s 7th District could have voted for Obama by a 61-38 landslide. That means Republicans took what should have been a safely Democratic seat and squeezed in every available Republican voter they could to make it successfully lean red.
Tell us what you think the district looks like in the comments!