Ronald Brownstein, Columnist

The Texas Gerrymandering Fight Could Ignite a National Fire

Red and blue states increasingly see each other not as neighbors, but as enemies. That’s dangerous.

August 6, 2025 at 5:30 AM EDT

Ronald Brownstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He is also a CNN analyst and previously worked for The Atlantic, The National Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He has won multiple professional awards and is the author or editor of seven books.

Threatening to slice open America’s already-fraying seams.
Photographer: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

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The gerrymandering arms race triggered by Texas Republicans at President Donald Trump’s behest marks an ominous new milestone in the unraveling of America.

With the White House pushing other Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines, and Democratic states including California and New York pledging to respond, the rapidly escalating confrontation encapsulates how the Trump era is threatening the nation’s fundamental cohesion in ways unmatched since the Civil War. It reflects a vision of the United States not as a unified nation, but as irrevocably hostile blocs of red and blue states uneasily sharing the same land mass.