House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pledged a sweeping Democratic response May 11 as Republican-led redistricting efforts advance in several states.
According to a national tracker highlighted by FOX & Friends, the current redistricting trend could help the GOP gain up to 14 U.S. House seats before the 2026 midterm elections. In a letter to House Democrats, Jeffries described the party’s response as a “massive” effort.
“We remain undeterred,” Jeffries wrote, according to Reuters. “Our effort to forcefully push back against the Republican redistricting scheme will not slow down. We are just getting started.”
Jeffries said Democrats still believe they can gain the three seats needed to win a House majority despite recent setbacks in the U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Supreme Court. As Zeale News previously reported, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled April 29 against certain race-based district map schemes, making states face a higher legal standard when determining majority-minority district boundaries and giving several Republican-led states an opening to redraw their maps. Virginia’s Supreme Court also nullified a Democratic-backed map that party operatives had hoped would help them gain four new seats.
Republicans currently hold a 217-212 House majority, with one independent caucusing with the GOP. Five seats are vacant because of deaths and resignations.
According to a redistricting tracker shared on FOX & Friends, Texas is projected to net three-to-five seats, and Florida should gain one-to-four. Missouri, Tennessee, and North Carolina will likely gain one apiece, the tracker suggests, while Democrats could see three-to-five pickups in California and one in Utah.
Democrats scramble for a response after Virginia’s map is tossed as a rare wave of redistricting battles unfolds nationwide. @newtgingrich puts it into perspective. pic.twitter.com/TRoVRD40zy
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 11, 2026
The tracker also noted that Democratic redistricting efforts in Virginia and New York have been blocked by courts. The U.S. Supreme Court in March blocked a New York court ruling that would have required the state to redraw its 11th Congressional District before the 2026 elections.
Jeffries said Democrats are fighting Republican-led redistricting efforts in the South while also pursuing litigation and possible map changes in other states.
“Led by the Congressional Black Caucus and national civil rights groups, Democrats are battling Jim Crow-era racial gerrymandering throughout the Deep South,” Jeffries wrote. “Simultaneously, there is pending litigation in Virginia, Florida, Missouri, and Wisconsin. States like New York, Maryland, Colorado, Washington, and several others are taking steps to decisively respond to what the U.S. Supreme Court has unleashed.”
He added that even after the GOP “being aided and abetted by blatantly undemocratic court decisions,” the Democratic Party’s “enthusiasm and resolve have grown more intense.”
Republicans have defended the redistricting efforts as legally permissible and politically routine.
Democrats are also looking beyond 2026. Axios reported May 11 that some Minnesota Democrats are discussing whether to redraw the state’s political maps if the party wins full control of the state’s government in November.
Meanwhile, Republicans in several states have continued to push for additional House seats.
>> GOP-led states accelerate redistricting push after Supreme Court ruling <<
On May 8, Alabama Republicans approved legislation allowing the state to hold new U.S. House primary elections if courts permit it to use a more Republican-friendly congressional map for the 2026 midterms, according to NBC News. Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the measure into law the same day.
The law would let Alabama disregard results from the scheduled May 19 primary in affected districts and hold new primaries under a 2023 map GOP lawmakers prefer. That map would replace the current court-drawn plan, which created a second district where black voters make up close to a majority and helped elect Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.
Louisiana lawmakers on May 8 began the process of redrawing congressional districts as the state moves to adopt a new map ahead of the 2026 midterms following the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling.
According to local outlet NOLA, the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony on multiple proposed maps. Some proposals would reduce Louisiana’s two majority-black districts to one or eliminate them entirely in a shift that could hand Republicans at least one seat in the state’s U.S. House delegation. Lawmakers are expected to vote on new maps as soon as this week.