The Left’s Gerrymandering Hypocrisy Is Undeniable

One of the most infuriating aspects of the gerrymandering debate is the left’s shameless hypocrisy. These days, they rail against gerrymandering like it’s some unprecedented assault on democracy. But anyone paying attention knows Democrats have been gerrymandering with surgical precision for decades—carving up states to lock in their own political power. And when they do it, somehow it’s always “different.” They barely even bother to hide the double standard.

During a telling moment on CNN’s Newsnight, Democrat commentator Xochitl Hinojosa let the mask slip. In trying to defend her party’s redistricting tactics, she accidentally said the quiet part out loud: gerrymandering is only a crisis when Republicans do it. When Democrats rig the map in their favor, it’s okay.

The conversation, which centered on the ongoing redistricting battles in Texas and other states, laid bare the double standard that has long defined how Democrats approach partisan map-drawing. According to Hinojosa, the problem isn’t gerrymandering—it’s who is doing it.

“What they want is an independent commission,” she claimed of Texas Democrats. “Texas Democrats introduced legislation in Texas that, of course, went nowhere because Republicans don’t want an independent commission.”

She then offered up California as a model: “What is there in California? An independent commission. Democrats would prefer a fair process, an independent commission,” she claimed.

CNN contributor Scott Jennings quickly dismantled that talking point with some inconvenient facts. “Regarding California, Republicans get about 40 percent of the vote and they have 17 percent of the Congressional seats, so not a great example,” he noted. “But number two, if it’s ‘rigging the election’—that’s your words—in Texas, is it going to be rigging the election when all these Democrats say they’re going to gerrymander in the other states?”

Then came the mic drop.

“Have the elections been rigged in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, New Mexico, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Rhode Island?” Jennings asked. “Because there, the proportion of Republican vote comes nowhere near what they have in Congress.”

Cornered, Hinojosa admitted what many already suspect about the left’s attitude toward gerrymandering: it’s only a problem when Republicans do it.

“They did a normal redistricting process,” she said of deep-blue states. “If states end up going and calling special sessions and doing all of these things to try to gain seats, I agree. I don’t agree with that.”

But in the same breath, she endorsed it as necessary: “Do I think they need to do it? Absolutely, because if Republicans aren’t going to play fair, then Democrats aren’t going to play fair. And that’s the fight that we have to have right now.”

See how it is?

And that’s precisely why Democrats are incapable of having an honest conversation about gerrymandering. You can’t have a real debate when one side refuses to acknowledge its own guilt. The left won’t admit that Democrat-run states have some of the most aggressively gerrymandered maps in the country, because doing so would destroy their narrative that only Republicans manipulate the system.

Instead, they wrap their power grabs in the language of “equity” and “fairness” while screaming “authoritarianism” any time the GOP redraws a line. It’s not just dishonest—it’s deliberate. Until Democrats are willing to hold themselves to the same standards they demand of Republicans, there can be no meaningful dialogue—only hypocrisy and gaslighting.