NEW: GOP Redistricting Push Backfires as Trump Spends Millions Defending Redrawn Seats

Washington, D.C. – Republicans tried to rig the House map with a mid-decade redistricting push designed to lock in more GOP seats. Now, according to new reporting from MS NOW, Donald Trump’s political operation is still spending millions to defend some of the very same deep-red districts Republicans redrew.

Read more below:

MS NOW: Republicans redrew their districts to make them safe. Now they’re spending millions to defend them.
By Kevin Frey
September 23, 2026

• When Republicans redrew congressional districts in a number of states over the last year, they hoped their efforts would maximize GOP House seats and minimize the number of contests where Democrats could feasibly win.

• But now, with just weeks to go before Election Day, Republicans are suddenly finding a host of deep red districts in play — and President Donald Trump’s political operation is now spending millions to defend Republicans in a dozen districts that the GOP redrew to favor Trump by at least nine percentage points.

• In fact, if these maps existed in 2024, Trump would have carried these districts by an average of 12 points.

• Records reviewed by MS NOW show that so far, No Going Back PAC — a new super PAC tied to Trump’s political operation — has already invested approximately $6 million in redrawn districts where the Republican has a roughly double-digit advantage based on Trump’s 2024 performance.

• It’s the latest sign of a larger problem for Republicans: The midterms are shaping up to be a potential disaster for the GOP.

• Polling suggests the maps that were designed to protect the Republican majority from a blue wave don’t appear to be safe, and Republicans are now compelled to spend in districts that should be solidly red.

• But the biggest investment among the ruby red redrawn districts so far is in Florida’s 25th Congressional District, where Federal Election Commission filings show No Going Back PAC spending more than $2 million on a combination of TV ads and mailers. In that district, Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz is facing off against Republican Scott Singer, the former mayor of Boca Raton.
  
• While Florida’s 25th district backed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by approximately 5 points, Florida Republicans redrew the map to turn the area into a Trump +9.2 district. And yet, despite the new district lines, Moskowitz looks like he could pull off the upset. On Tuesday, Fox News moved its rating of the race from “Toss-up” to “Lean D.”

• Of course, Texas Republicans first kicked off the mid-decade redistricting war — at Trump’s urging — last summer. Other states followed suit, including North Carolina, Ohio and Florida, with state lawmakers crafting new maps aimed at advantaging the GOP.

• On the GOP side of the battle, however, Republicans are still having to spend in these districts to support the GOP candidates. For example, federal filings show that Trump-affiliated groups have poured in more than $1 million in Texas’s 35th Congressional District, which backed Harris by more than 30 points in 2024. (The district now favors Trump by about 10 points, after Republicans spread out the GOP advantage elsewhere.)
  
• No Going Back PAC is investing more than $500,000 on a TV ad in Texas’ 34th Congressional District, which was redrawn into a Trump +10 district.

• And the group is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaign mailers and other voter outreach efforts across districts like Alabama’s 2nd (Trump +14.3), Florida’s 22nd (Trump +10.6), North Carolina’s 1st (Trump +11.6) and Ohio’s 15th (Trump +10).
  
• A spokesperson for House Majority PAC —which also works to elect Democrats to the House — argued in a statement that “strong” candidates are expanding the “battlefield deep into Trump territory.”

• “Now Trump and Republicans are being forced to spend millions defending deep-red districts, including seats they literally redrew to make safer for themselves earlier this cycle,” spokesperson Katarina Flicker said. “This spending is the clearest evidence yet that Democratic recruitment has fundamentally changed the House map.”

###