Top GOP Mapmaker Calls on Donors To Fund More Gerrymandering

By Yunior Rivas

Adam Kincaid is the executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the GOP’s chief redistricting organization.

Republican donors are being urged to bankroll a new wave of nationwide gerrymanders — and the plea is coming from the GOP’s top mapmaker himself.

Adam Kincaid, the executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, told Bloomberg News this week that campaign contributors should see funding gerrymanders as the best investment they can make ahead of 2026.

“If you’re looking for a return on your investment, redistricting is second to none when it comes to the value for what you can accomplish,” Kincaid said. “There are a handful of donors who get the importance.”

The remarks are a rare public appeal from the man who has quietly drawn — and defended — some of the nation’s most aggressive gerrymanders. 

His call came as Republican-aligned groups such as Club for Growth funnel new money into state-level redistricting fights in Ohio, Florida and Missouri, seeking to secure a GOP House majority before voters even cast ballots.

Kincaid underscored the strategy earlier this year.

“It’s a priority to keep the House and Republicans should be looking for as many seats as we can get,” he told a reporter. “It makes sense for Republicans to try ahead of 2026.”

Behind the scenes, Kincaid was at the center of Texas’ mid-decade gerrymander — a Trump-endorsed plan that could hand Republicans up to five new congressional seats if it survives ongoing court challenges. 

During a recent federal trial in El Paso, which Democracy Docket extensively covered,  he testified that while he had once been told by GOP leaders to avoid dismantling minority districts protected under the Voting Rights Act, this year he received no such instruction.

Under oath, Kincaid said he took direction from the White House and from Texas’ Republican congressional delegation. And he said he used Signal to ensure that communications among the group could not be recovered.

Kincaid has consistently portrayed partisan manipulation of congressional maps as a mandate. 

“It’s a priority to keep the House,” he said again earlier this year. “There were a handful of seats that weren’t politically possible to get before that may be possible now.”