Politico's Alex Isenstadt: GOP Congressional Gerrymandering Could Prove Costly Over the Long Haul

The Republican Party

In Politico, Alex Isenstadt examines potential side-effects of Republican gerrymandering of congressional districts, a situation that has helped the GOP achieve an electorally-safe majority for the short-run, but perhaps stunting the party's long-run appeal to an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse population.

Isenstadt notes that in the past couple of years, GOP-dominated congressional districts have, in many cases, become increasingly white and increasingly conservative.  Republican representatives in such districts don't fear a challenge from the political left in a general election. Rather, they fear a challenge from the right in a Republican primary.

This, in turn, has created the incentive for such Republican House members to adhere to a narrow rightwing orthodoxy, while ignoring the party's perceived larger need to reach out to a more diverse electorate outside of the district.  In other words, the demands of the individual white conservative district trump the needs of the larger GOP.

Isenstadt further reports on the anxiety of some Republican commentators that GOP congressmen in these hard-right districts are not considering the needs of the party as a whole. Isenstadt's article is linked below.

Politico's Alex Isenstadt: Congressional Gerrymandering Might Have a High Long-Term Cost for the GOP

"Some top GOP strategists and candidates warn that the ruby red districts the party drew itself into are pushing House Republicans further to the right — narrowing the party’s appeal at a time when some GOP leaders say its future rests on the opposite happening."

----Alex Isenstadt