President Donald Trump urged House Republicans to challenge a new Pennsylvania Congressional district affirmed by a January state Supreme court decision.
Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new “pushed” Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Your Original was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2018
The new map changes the number of districts that were staunchly pro-Trump in 2016 from 12 to 10, setting up a perceived edge for the Democratic party in its hopes to retake the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections.
The new Pennsylvania map could prove to be the most important single event of the campaign for the House (+ great interactive maps!) https://t.co/kmRliJFT2J
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) February 19, 2018
“This is pretty close to a Democratic wet dream,” Republican Pennsylvania consultant Christopher Nicolas told Politico.
Republicans in the state have vowed to challenge the state Supreme court map in the court system.
Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report noted that the map is “actively helping Dems compensate for their natural geographic disadvantage in PA,” adding “Dems have a great shot to win 8-11 of PA’s 18 seats in November. Under a truly partisan-blind compact map, maybe 7-10. Under old GOP map, maybe 6-9.”