Gerrymandering is an age-old American political pastime. For as long as there have been partisans in our country (see: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams), there have been state-level political actors intent on gaming the system to their respective party’s national benefit. In fact, Colorado would possibly look a lot different politically had a fight against this exact kind of action gone a different way.
Indeed, the word “gerrymander” was coined by a cartoonist at the Boston Gazette in 1812. That year, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry ordered the redistricting of his state to benefit his political party. The cartoonist birthed the term by combining “Gerry” with “salamander,” which one of the more creatively carved districts resembled. Americans have enjoyed the colorful term ever since.
Historically, the redrawing of congressional districts occurs immediately following the decennial census. Doing it out of turn or more than once per decade is, to use a favorite phrase of President Trump’s, “very unfair.” Absent a court-ordered re-drawing on constitutional grounds, congressional redistricting just once a decade immediately following the decennial census had long been a part of the American democratic experience. Doing it out of turn or more than once per decade is, to use a favorite phrase of President Trump’s, “very unfair.”
But it does happen now and then. Some out-of-cycle reapportionments have been court ordered, usually for violating the Voting Rights Act. Others have been voluntary, or rather, Machiavellian.
This is what is happening in Texas. President Trump demanded his political allies in Austin redraw its congressional map to secure up to five additional House seats for Republicans. This demand is not just craven and constitutionally suspect, it is an attempt by Texas Republicans to disenfranchise mostly nonwhite Texans in urban districts.
How can this happen? As others have recently noted, in 2019 the Supreme Court opened the door to this kind of action when it ruled 5-4 in Rucho v. Common Cause that the federal courts could not determine the legality of partisan gerrymanders since, well, it was just too darn difficult.
As Chief Justice John Roberts stated in his majority opinion, these are “political questions that are beyond the reach of the federal government.”
Justice Elena Kagan, in her pointed dissent, countered that “the voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.” She called the ruling an “abdication” and wrote, “For the first time ever, this Court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.”
Cut to Colorado in 2003. The George W. Bush administration tried a similar game in Colorado, which was then controlled by Republicans, save for its attorney general, the lone Democrat elected to statewide executive office. That year, Colorado’s Republican governor and GOP-controlled legislature enacted a “midnight gerrymander” to replace the existing court-approved redistricting plan, securing a sixth congressional district for the GOP. This would have left Colorado Democrats with only one seat in the House of Representatives.
The attorney general opposed the effort, informing the governor that he would not represent the state in court when the lawsuits came pouring in. The governor attempted to call his bluff, but the attorney general wasn’t bluffing. He used his authority to petition the Colorado Supreme Court to act in the interests of the public and to overturn the governor’s plan as a violation of the Colorado Constitution, which expressly prohibited more than one congressional redistricting per decade.
The Colorado Supreme Court quickly ruled 5-2 that this gerrymander was indeed illegal. All GOP efforts to overturn it failed.
I was that attorney general.
This was only 22 years ago. We currently live in a hyperpartisan age that rewards power above common cause, an era that craves division and disparages unification. Yet there still exist Americans of good faith across the political spectrum who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law, and who abhor those who demonize and vilify fellow citizens for nothing more than the purpose of accumulating more power.
Many reasonable Texans — Democrats, independents and others — have united against this Republican power grab. As the nation anticipates the 2026 mid-term elections, it is imperative for all Americans of goodwill to come together and stand strong against the type of power grab going on in Texas. Hopefully Texans — and Americans — can get past their extreme divisiveness and recommit to a system of good governance and checks and balances for the benefit of all citizens.
In 2003 I stood on the principle that re-drawing congressional districts whenever it is politically expedient is wrong. Coloradans agreed. My current hope is that Americans of all political stripes would also agree. If we are ever to get past this dark moment, we must find a way to do so.
Ken Salazar served as the Colorado state attorney general from 1999-2005, and served as U.S. senator from Colorado (2005-09), U.S. Secretary of the Interior (2009-13) and U.S. ambassador to Mexico (2021-25).
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