Copyright The New York Times
Lawmakers realized in the 19th century that they could increase their party’s political power by redrawing legislative districts. The term of art is gerrymandering, named after the map for the Massachusetts State Senate drawn under Gov. Elbridge Gerry. (One district looked like a salamander. Get it?) Typically, legislators gerrymander once a decade, after the census. Today, gerrymandering is a weapon of constant political warfare. State legislators, both red and blue, are furiously redrawing congressional maps in a quest to control the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections. The skirmishing began in August, when Trump persuaded Texas lawmakers to redraw congressional districts, which will probably let them send five more Republicans to Congress. California fought back on Tuesday and will probably deliver five seats to the Democrats. Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have also drawn new maps. A dozen or more other states are considering it. Each side believes it is at an unfair disadvantage unless it rejiggers its maps. Why it matters This is a crisis with few parallels in American history, election lawyers told my colleagues Richard Fausset and Nick Corasaniti. “The wheels are coming off the car right now,” Nathaniel Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School who has studied gerrymandering, told them. “There’s a sense in which the system is rapidly spiraling downward, and there’s no end in sight.” Here’s what he means: If the cycle continues, gerrymandering could happen before every midterm election, in any state, to the benefit of whatever party’s in charge. The turnabout could confuse voters, deepen their cynicism and create a situation in which House delegations from some states don’t reflect the political diversity of their residents. All this spells trouble for representative democracy. It lets politicians with Sharpies pick their voters, instead of the other way around. New districts that are considered “safe” for one party are more likely to elect a partisan warrior. Incumbents are less likely to be voted out of office. That’s great news if you’re in power. Less so if you’re not. “I don’t think this is pearl-clutching,” Nick said when we spoke yesterday. “It’s pretty dark.” These problems are already evident across the country. Earlier this year, The Times looked at the nearly 6,000 congressional and state legislative races in November 2024. Very few were true contests. “Nearly all either were dominated by an incumbent or played out in a district drawn to favor one party overwhelmingly,” my colleagues wrote. “The result was a blizzard of blowouts, even in a country that is narrowly divided on politics.” Now, let’s get you caught up on everything else. More on the election Republicans blamed a lot of things — the shutdown, the economy and the candidates — for their weak showing on Election Day. But they didn’t blame Trump. Trump has privately described Zohran Mamdani as a good talker and talented politician. But publicly, the two men appear to be headed for a showdown. Two Democrats — Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey — won governor’s races by flipping Trump supporters. More on New York City In the past two months, the Trump administration has killed dozens of people it claims were drug smugglers on boats off the coasts of Latin America. (We’ve tracked the 16 strikes here, with aerial images of the vessels at sea.) Now, the U.S. is mulling whether to take its military campaign a step further — onto land, in Venezuela, The Times reports. The Trump administration has considered seizing the country’s oil fields or striking President Nicolás Maduro’s protection detail. Trump hasn’t yet decided how to proceed. He worries, aides say, about imperiling American troops and possibly failing. But many of his advisers are pushing to oust Maduro from power. The Justice Department is already mocking up a legal rationale for the administration to expand its military campaign without congressional approval. That guidance could include a justification for targeting Maduro. (The two countries are not in a military conflict, so this would be unusual.) America’s biggest aircraft carrier is on its way to the Caribbean and will arrive by mid-November. Read more about Trump’s options and what’s at stake. Could Venezuela fight back against a direct U.S. attack? The country has Iranian, Russian and Chinese weapons, according to this look at its military, but they’re all overmatched by American firepower. Still, Venezuela’s leaders have prepared for what they call asymmetric warfare, drawing up insurgency plans. Street-level paramilitary cells called colectivos could, for example, wage guerrilla warfare in Caracas. The Florentine Diamond: A legendary jewel of the Hapsburg dynasty was thought to be lost for over a century. Its heirs have admitted it was in a bank vault in Canada. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about the Portuguese island of Madeira. Unsafe sleep? A slew of headlines this week linked melatonin with heart failure. But scientists say the underlying study has issues. TODAY’S NUMBER 40 — That’s the median age of first-time home buyers in the U.S. in 2025. Five years ago, it was 33. SPORTS N.H.L.: Alex Ovechkin became the league’s first player to score 900 career goals. N.F.L.: Drew Brees is joining Fox as a football analyst. He might be replacing Mark Sanchez, who was arrested last month.
