REDMAP
REDMAP is a project of the Republican State Leadership Committee of the United States to increase Republican control of Congressional seats as well as state legislators, largely through determination of electoral district boundaries. The project has reportedly made effective use of partisan gerrymandering, by relying on previously unavailable mapping software such as Maptitude to improve the precision with which district lines are strategically drawn. The strategy was focused on swing blue states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin where there was a Democratic majority but which they could swing towards Republican with appropriate redistricting. The project was launched in 2010 and estimated to have cost the Republican party around.
Salon editor David Daley, author of the 2016 book Ratf**ked, argues that beginning in 2010, the GOP sought control of governorships and state legislatures for the express purpose of controlling redistricting to protect House Republican seats. This push was led by the Republican Senate Leadership Committee, and organized by Chris Jankowski as the Redistricting Majority Project. GOP strategist Karl Rove discussed this strategy with The Wall Street Journal.
The effects of REDMAP came about in the 2012 United States House of Representatives elections, in which the Republicans were able to secure several districts and retain control of the United States House of Representatives by a 33-seat margin, despite Democratic candidates having had more of the general vote by over 1 million. However, in the 2018 US midterm elections, though the GOP won a majority of Senate seats, it lost the house by a portion roughly equal to the popular vote.
The redistricting of Wisconsin became the basis of a case before the Supreme Court of the United States, Gill v. Whitford, brought to challenge if the redistricting of that state was considered unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.
