Several Republican governors of states with GOP majorities in their respective legislatures are heeding President Donald Trump’s call to redraw their congressional districts just five years after the last U.S. Census. However, at least one of those Republican trifecta states won’t be joining them.
Politico reported Friday that New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte (R) rejected Trump’s push to squeeze more Republican seats out of deep-red states, even though she has (slim) Republican majorities in both chambers of the Granite State’s legislature. She told Manchester, New Hampshire-based ABC affiliate WMUR: “The timing is off for this, because we are literally in the middle of the census period.”
“And when I talk to people in New Hampshire … it’s not on the top of their priority list,” she added.
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According to Ballotpedia, Republicans have 217 seats in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, compared to Democrats’ 177 seats. And Republicans occupy 16 of New Hampshire’s 24 state senate seats, meaning Ayotte could likely box out both of the state’s Democrats with a new map if she chose. However, doing so would effectively be a political one-eighty from New Hampshire’s current congressional makeup.
Even though New Hampshire has a Republican trifecta state government, its congressional delegation consists entirely of Democrats. Reps. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) and Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) represent both of its U.S. House districts, and Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) represent the Granite State in the U.S. Senate. While much of the state is rural, most of its residents are concentrated in reliably Democratic-leaning population centers like Manchester and Portsmouth in the 1st Congressional District, and Nashua and Keene in the 2nd Congressional District.
Texas was the first state to take Trump up on his challenge, using a special session that Governor Greg Abbott (R) initially called in order to help counties devastated by flooding to pass new maps that would likely result in five more Republican seats in the Lone Star State. Democratic lawmakers fled the state in order to deny Republicans a quorum, meaning they can’t pass the new GOP-friendly maps out of the legislature. Abbott has vowed to call multiple special sessions in order to pull off the mid-decade redistricting effort.
Following Texas’ effort, other Republican states have embarked on similar efforts. Lawmakers in Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and Ohio have already proposed drawing new maps, and Democratic-run states have promised to retaliate if Republicans make good on their plans. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has proposed a 2025 ballot measure that would allow California to redraw its House district boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) has said that she intends to pursue amending the state’s constitution to replace its independent redistricting commission in order to draw new maps by 2028. Illinois and Maryland legislators have also entertained drawing new maps in their states.
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