What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State

On Feb. 3, the Michigan Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed last month that challenged the state redistricting commission’s new map, claiming it would disenfranchise Black voters by eliminating majority-Black districts in Detroit. The court ruled that the case, brought forward by Detroit lawmakers and Democratic activists, did not show sufficient evidence. Other lawsuits challenging the map are still pending.

Back in December, Michigan’s independent redistricting commission — composed of four Republicans, four Democrats and five independents — voted 8-5 to enact a new congressional map for the Wolverine State for the next decade.

The new map, which the commission labeled “Chestnut,” scores well on several metrics of map fairness. It has virtually no efficiency gap (the ​​difference between each party’s share of “wasted votes” — those that don’t contribute to a candidate winning), and the state’s new median congressional district is only 2 percentage points redder than the state as a whole. In addition, almost a quarter of the state’s now-13 districts are competitive.

Overall, the map creates six Republican-leaning seats, four Democratic-leaning seats and three highly competitive seats. The map does make it likely that Republicans will gain at least one seat in 2022: the new 10th District, which moves from a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean of D+8 to R+6. Instead of taking their chances there, both Democratic Reps. Andy Levin and Haley Stevens have announced plans to run in the bluer 11th District next door, setting up an incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary. Similarly, Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga’s district is mostly absorbed by the new 3rd District, which not only has a fellow GOP incumbent (Rep. Peter Meijer) but also gets significantly bluer (going from R+9 to D+3). Huizenga, however, has opted to run for the safer (R+9) 4th District, where he actually lives.