Gerrymandering Our Freedom Away

By David McCall
USW International President

Jay McMurran grew furious several years ago when he realized that out-of-control gerrymandering in Michigan put his freedom at risk.

Purely partisan redistricting has turned the entire political process upside down, enabling officials to dictate to the voters and remain in office no matter how much harm they inflicted on millions of working people.

McMurran knew it was time to abolish this rigged system. In 2018, he joined the successful fight that wrested redistricting power from self-serving politicians and put the responsibility for drawing legislative and congressional districts in the hands of union members and other ordinary voters.

It was a victory for democracy that voters in other states began to emulate. But McMurran sees all of those gains slipping away now as Texas Republicans throw out the state’s current districts and gin up new ones for a nakedly political and unjust purpose, shoring up Donald Trump’s grip on power.

“This isn’t a Republican issue or a Democratic issue,” said McMurran, a longtime member of the United Steelworkers (USW), stressing the need for all citizens, regardless of political views, to oppose the Texas Republicans’ assault on liberty.

“It’s about America,” added McMurran, noting that labor organizations around the country oppose the stunt because of the long-term political and economic consequences for working families. “To me, this is the end of America, if we want to live in a democracy.”

Texas is among dozens of states still clinging to a backward approach, letting state lawmakers, rather than citizens, drive the redistricting process.

This sets the stage for gerrymandering, the deliberate creation of legislative and congressional districts to benefit a particular political party and special interests. 

Gerrymandering is a way for pro-corporate politicians to mute voters they fear or dislike, including millions of working people who command great power when voting in unison. Corporations have even been caught bankrolling legislative campaigns to hijack redistricting and legislative agendas, ultimately oppressing workers.

Working people remain livid with disastrous cuts to Medicaid and other lifelines. Fearing this anger will cost Republicans control of the House in the 2026 midterms, Trump earlier this month demanded that the Texas legislature stack the deck through ad hoc redistricting.

Sadly, the state’s Republican majority met the moment with cowardice, not character. Instead of taking a patriotic stand and telling Trump no, they concocted a map that squeezed out five more Republican-friendly congressional seats while further marginalizing opponents.

Their capitulation to Trump also set off a gerrymandering frenzy across the country, with legislatures in other states now rushing to redraw their own maps to benefit one party or the other.

The American people want none of this, stressed McMurran, noting that an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of Michigan voters passed the 2018 referendum creating the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission because of deep disgust with the kinds of games that Texas Republicans now are playing.

Michigan once ranked as one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation, with Republican legislators meeting in secret to draw maps intended to keep them in power and advance special interests at the expense of their constituents. Their trickery included dividing pockets of workers, Democrats and similar voters among multiple districts, diluting their votes and silencing their voices.

The low point for McMurran came as pro-corporate Republicans used this cheating to push through legislation attacking unions and the workers who supported them.

He understood that creating a fair redistricting process was a necessary first step in building a majority of legislators willing to end these abuses and put working people first. He threw himself into the battle to create the independent redistricting commission, working through the USW’s Rapid Response legislative and advocacy program to build support for the proposal among union voters.

Republicans tried every possible stunt to derail the commission but failed. Today, McMurran says, every vote counts, thanks to the commission’s commitment to drawing new legislative and congressional districts not for anyone’s political gain but merely to account for demographic shifts documented in the census.

The panel holds public meetings, dispensing with the back-room deal-making that characterized gerrymandering. The commission consists of 13 voters, four Republicans, four Democrats and five without party affiliation, all randomly selected from a pool of thousands of applicants.

Residents with close ties to politics, such as elected officials and employees of the legislature, are prohibited from serving. Citizens selected for the commission may not run for political office for five years afterward, a hedge against potential conflicts of interest as they go about their work.

The redistricting did exactly what McMurran and millions of other Michigan residents expected, producing more competitive races statewide.

Nonpartisan political observers, including groups such as PlanScore and Common Cause, hailed both the commission’s transparency and evenhandedness. And Michigan voters now see real battles—for individual seats as well as control of the legislature—in each election cycle.

“That’s fair,” McMurran said.

“It wasn’t just a win,” he said of the commission. “It was a big win.”

Michigan voters showed the rest of the country a path forward. Unfortunately, Texas Republicans care more about bowing to Trump than standing up for democracy and serving working people.

“People want their politicians to be honest,” McMurran explained. “They’re tired of politics as usual.”