This Week at Democracy Docket: Trump’s Texas Gerrymander Blocked, and the GOP Calls ICE on Signature Gatherers

This was a week when President Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab — from his bid to rig the 2026 midterms to his corrupt, revenge-driven prosecutions — suffered some major setbacks. 

At Democracy Docket, we definitely enjoyed covering Trump’s reversals. But we did so knowing we need to stay vigilant, because the threats to democracy aren’t stopping any time soon.

Trump’s biggest loss came Tuesday, with a federal court ruling blocking Texas’ extreme gerrymander. The state undertook the redraw, you’ll remember, after pressure from the president. 

At Democracy Docket, we covered the ruling from every angle. Jen Rice was among the first to report the news. Not long after, Yunior Rivas had zeroed in on a key part of the story: A letter sent by the U.S. Justice Department, which was intended to give Texas a less partisan rationale for its redistricting — it said there were constitutional concerns about the use of race in Texas’ existing map — but which the court cited as evidence that the redraw had been driven by race, which is illegal. In other words, a major self-own by the Trump administration.

But the court battle over Texas’ map isn’t over. Yunior followed up that night with a detailed explanation of what comes next. And when one judge issued his frankly unhinged dissent the following day — attacking not just his fellow judges but George Soros, as well — Yunior was on top of that, too. Then on Friday night, Jen reported that Texas had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to put the ruling on hold. 

With five congressional seats on the line, it’s hard to have much confidence that the high court’s conservative, GOP-appointed majority will let this pro-democracy, pro-minority ruling stay in place. But whatever happens, we’ll continue covering every step in this fight.

Trump’s political prosecutions of his perceived enemies also didn’t fare well this week. As Democracy Docket’s Jacob Knutson explained in a deep dive Saturday, the efforts to go after former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) “are so flawed that they might not even make it to trial.” Both defendants have argued in court that the acting U.S. attorney in the case, former Trump personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, was improperly appointed, meaning she lacked the authority to bring the charges. And, as Jacob reported earlier this week, the judge in the Comey case pointed to “profound investigative missteps” made by Halligan, which may rise to the level of misconduct. 

Still, Jacob warned, there are signs that new indictments against others that Trump wants to get back at may be on the horizon. 

“Justice is definitely coming,” one top Trump ally involved with the effort announced in a recent podcast appearance. “So, lawyer up, motherf*****s.”

But we didn’t just cover the news, we also broke some. After we exclusively reported last month on a top federal election official who unleashed a wild rant about non-citizen voters, Democracy Docket’s Jim Saksa followed up by scooping that a group of Democratic senators is calling on her to recant her comments or resign. 

Meanwhile, Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen had a scoop of his own — getting his hands on notes from a conference held by anti-voting activists, at which Cleta Mitchell, a close Trump ally,  set a goal of going back to one-day elections. That would mean no more early or mail voting — and vastly restricted access to the ballot.

Finally, we’ve been tracking another outrageous GOP effort to suppress democracy that frankly deserves to be a national story.

Back in September, Missouri passed its own Trump-driven gerrymander — but pro-democracy activists are fighting back, organizing a campaign to get a measure on the ballot that would give voters a chance to reject the new map. In response, Republicans are doing everything they can — and I mean everything — to prevent the referendum process from working as it was intended to. 

On Monday, Jen reported on deceptive text message sent by the Republican National Committee — in case you doubted this was a national priority for the GOP —  that falsely claimed signatures for the ballot measure had been “improperly collected” and urged Missourians to “withdraw your signature before it’s too late.” 

Republicans also have tried to sabotage the measure by writing blatantly biased ballot language to describe it to voters. On Friday, as Yunior explained, the measure’s organizers filed a lawsuit challenging the language written by the secretary of state, which falsely claims that the GOP gerrymander “better reflects statewide voting patterns.” 

Yunior also brought you news of the craziest GOP move, which came later that day: The state’s attorney general posted on X alleging that signature gatherers are “reportedly employing illegal aliens,” — her office offered no support for the charge — and adding: “We have referred this matter to ICE.”

Amid concerns that the Trump administration will try to use federal law enforcement to harass and intimidate voters, Missouri is test-driving that very tactic to suppress direct democracy — another form of political participation that threatens Republican power. 

Most of the national press corps seems to have shrugged its shoulders. But we think this story is pretty revealing about one side’s disdain for ordinary citizens. We’re going to keep following it closely.