OPINION: Roads To Fairer Representation In Congress …

Gerrymandering is the root of bad lawmaking. Democrats and the GOP have both used it to handpick their voters, which is why so many elected officials worry much more about pleasing donors and party leaders than helping constituents.

Now that Donald Trump is using the political equivalent of a neutron bomb to try to make sure he’ll have a compliant GOP House after next year’s election, only the pro-dictatorship crowd can afford to stand still.

That’s why you can’t blame Democratic governors Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York for fighting back.

It’s also why, when it comes to drawing congressional district lines, the same rules must apply nationwide.

That’s not a new idea, but it’s taken on more urgency since Texas’ state government did a mid-decade gerrymander after Trump demanded five more safe GOP districts in time for the 2026 election. He knows he and his Project 2025ers will need them as their tariffs, immigrant roundups and One Big Beautiful Bill (for Billionaires) hurt more and more Americans.

As a rule, redistricting only takes place just after the release of the U.S. Census unless the courts decide a district map violates the law, as Pennsylvania’s did in the 2010s.

But once-a-decade redistricting is just a norm – one the Lone Star State GOP also flouted in 2003, with prodding from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the George W. Bush administration.

The Supreme Court says it’s up to Congress to protect voters from power grabs like those, and House members have called for remedies.

House Resolution 4889 from GOP Kevin Kiley of California and H.R. 4358 (the Anti-Rigging Act of 2025) from Democrat Marc Veasey of Texas would each fix the immediate problem by banning partisan redistricting do-overs, including this year’s attempts.

But Lizzie Fletcher, one of nine Texas Democrats who signed onto Veasey’s bill, isn’t optimistic. “I don’t see this Republican-controlled Congress putting any check on the administration or on what they’re trying to do,” she told Houston Public Media.

Our pathetic excuse for a federal lawmaking body would probably be even more reluctant to act on a bill that GOP Congressman Mike Lawler of New York says he’ll introduce to stop partisan gerrymandering altogether. (By contrast, the Freedom To Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which contained this and other important election reforms, would have passed the Democratic-controlled Congress in 2022, if not for a GOP filibuster.)

So we can still hope that someday one citizen’s vote will count as much as the next. In H.R. 4632 (the Fair Representation Act), Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia (whose state hasn’t entered the redistricting war) proposes big and complex changes.

Six other Democrats have co-sponsored the bill, whose redistricting criteria includes requiring congressional districts to reflect their states’ diversity of political opinion and forbidding favoring or disfavoring a political party.

But Beyer goes much further. Ranked-choice voting would be used in House and Senate races. While the size of each state’s congressional delegation wouldn’t change, the districts would be larger, making gerrymandering harder. And multiple House members would represent each district, which would encourage more people to run.

This would lead to more opportunities for urban Republicans, rural Democrats, independents, women and people of color, nonpartisan advocacy group FairVote says.  

Even with strict criteria, there are many ways to draw district maps. One possibility that FairVote came up with shows Pennsylvania with five districts instead of 17. The district for my city, Pottsville, would have three congressional seats, with two Republicans and one Democrat likely to fill them.

Voters would designate their favorite candidates and rank the others in order of preference. To win in this district, a candidate would need 25% plus one of the first-choice votes. Votes above that threshold would count toward those voters’ second choices. The weakest candidate would be eliminated, but their voters’ second choices would be counted. If necessary, the process would be repeated until all three seats are filled.

This bill may seem like a good-government fever dream, but Beyer and his co-sponsors deserve applause for mounting a push for fair elections.

And as MAGA leaders continue to seize and abuse power, any attempt to make our country more rather than less democratic deserves consideration and support. 

Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.

Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.

Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.

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