WA Democrats push to redraw congressional map amid national redistricting blitz

Washington Democratic lawmakers are making a push for mid-decade redistricting.

House Joint Resolution 4209, prefiled Tuesday by House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon and Tacoma state Rep. Sharlett Mena, would pave the way for the state to redraw its congressional maps in the middle of the 10-year cycle.

The proposal is part of a broader national trend of states attempting to turn their congressional districts a deeper hue of red or blue.

Last summer, Texas — upon the urging of President Donald Trump — passed a new map in an effort to swing a handful of seats in Republicans’ favor.

California voters then approved a ballot measure in November to revamp the state’s congressional lines to benefit Democrats.

Now, with less than a week before the start of the 2026 legislative session, Washington has entered the redistricting game.

Fitzgibbon, a West Seattle Democrat, said in a Jan. 6 call that the national Republican Party sought to “rig” five Texas seats before similar campaigns cropped up in other GOP-run states, including North Carolina and Missouri.

“And it’s not a fight that I think Washington wants to have,” he said, “but it’s something that I think we need to stand up for if we’re going to protect our democracy.”

Trump and Republicans are seeking to retain GOP control of the U.S. House of Representatives in this year’s midterms. So far, six states have charged ahead with new congressional maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ mid-decade redistricting tracker.

Usually this process works quite differently.

Every 10 years following the decennial census, Washington’s bipartisan Redistricting Commission determines the outline of the state’s 10 congressional and 49 legislative districts. The 2020 process reportedly carried a roughly $2.65 million price tag.

Washington typically bars the mid-decade tweaking of congressional lines, although a two-thirds vote of both chambers would allow the commission to reconvene at any point. Fitzgibbon noted that the commission is composed of two Republican and two Democratic voting members, and that — if reconvened — each side would likely continue fighting for representation of their respective party.

Enter HJR 4209.

If the resolution were to clear both legislative chambers with two-thirds approval, then it would appear before voters. Washingtonians would decide whether to amend the state Constitution to allow for mid-decade congressional redistricting, deviating from the standard commission process.

The resolution specifies that if another state is redistricting its congressional map for a reason other than a judicial order, then the Washington state Legislature could adjust its own congressional map’s lines with a majority vote in each chamber. Do Democrats have the votes to pass HJR 4209?

Not this year, Fitzgibbon acknowledged. With a 59-39 sway in the House and a 30-19 hold in the Senate, he said the majority party isn’t banking on any Republicans voting in favor of the push.

“But I think it’s important to start the conversation,” Fitzgibbon added, sending a signal to Washingtonians and people nationwide that “this is what it would take for Washington to be able to help fight back against the election rigging that we’re seeing in states like Texas.”

Eight of Washington’s 10 U.S. House representatives are Democrats, so the state is already viewed as a blue stronghold. Its two Republican Congress members represent districts in the eastern part of the state.

Fitzgibbon previously noted the logistical difficulty of securing a round of mid-decade redistricting in a July report by the Washington State Standard. Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, a Seattle Democrat, is quoted in the article as saying: “We have already done our share to get Democrats in the House. There’s no juice to squeeze in the lemon here.”

House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary of Auburn told the Standard that Republicans wouldn’t back tinkering with the Redistricting Commission. He also warned that the Dems would face legal challenges if they attempted to change the map legislatively.

“This is not a serious proposal,” Stokesbary said at the time. “I hope Democrats try so the rest of us can have a good laugh and realize Democrat leadership is as dumb as their base thinks they are.”

Asked about what a potential redrawn map could look like, Fitzgibbon said during Tuesday’s call that such an exercise is still multiple steps down the road. But he added that you’d see districts become less compact.

Citing pockets of Democratic support in Eastern Washington, he theorized it could be possible to draw a more competitive district in that region than the 4th and 5th congressional districts have been in recent decades.

As for whether voters would have an appetite for this redistricting departure?

“I think Washington voters would be responsive to the idea that we need to fight back against Donald Trump trying to destroy our democracy,” Fitzgibbon said. “I think that Washington voters would vote yes on a measure that would protect our democracy in that way.”