Who should control congressional redistricting in your state?

Background

Congressional redistricting — the process of redrawing U.S. House district boundaries after each census — is one of the most consequential and contested features of American democracy. In most states, state legislatures draw the lines, a practice that dates to the founding. According to the Congressional Research Service, 39 state legislatures retain primary control over congressional redistricting, while 11 states use some form of commission. The issue has taken on fresh urgency as both major parties have pursued aggressive mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. In Texas, the Republican-controlled legislature redrew districts in 2025 to create additional Republican-leaning seats, while California voters approved a ballot initiative suspending the state's independent commission to draw maps favoring Democrats. As the Brennan Center for Justice has documented, litigation has surged, with maps in 30 states challenged since the 2020 census — the vast majority involving maps drawn under single-party legislative control.

Supporters of independent redistricting commissions argue that removing elected officials from the process reduces partisan gerrymandering and produces fairer, more competitive elections. Research published in PS: Political Science and Politics has found that independent commissions are associated with more competitive congressional races. Organizations like Common Cause contend that the key benefit of these commissions is eliminating the conflict of interest that arises when lawmakers draw their own districts. On the other side, those who favor legislative control argue that elected representatives are directly accountable to voters in a way that appointed commissioners are not. The Congressional Research Service notes that commissions can sometimes be structured in ways that make them less publicly accountable than legislatures. Some critics also raise constitutional concerns rooted in Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, which assigns election regulation to state legislatures — though the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that independent commissions are constitutional.

What is at stake extends well beyond process. The way district lines are drawn shapes which party controls the U.S. House, how well communities of color are represented, and whether elections are competitive enough to give voters a meaningful choice. According to Brennan Center estimates, maps used in the 2024 elections contained roughly 16 fewer Democratic-leaning districts than maps meeting strong anti-gerrymandering standards would have produced. The Bipartisan Policy Center observes that the explicitly political nature of redistricting in the United States has fostered public cynicism and acrimony. Every voter lives in a congressional district, meaning the outcome of this debate affects the quality of representation for all Americans — shaping not only who runs for office, but who wins and whose interests are prioritized in Washington.