HARRISBURG — Despite a growing number of states exploring unusual, mid-decade redraws of congressional lines for political reasons, Pennsylvania officials have no plans to follow suit.
The redistricting wave kicked off earlier this summer when President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw these districts in an effort to give Republicans a wider margin in the U.S. House of Representatives — the textbook definition of gerrymandering.
In response, several Democratic governors have announced plans to pursue similar strategies.
So far, only two states have taken concrete action toward this goal. Texas lawmakers have approved a new map (which is already the target of lawsuits), while California legislators sent voters a new plan for their consideration (Republicans are suing). But officials in a handful of Democratic- and Republican-led states — including Florida, Illinois, and New York — have said they are considering following suit.
Congressional redistricting typically happens once a decade, after a new U.S. Census is performed, in order to reflect population shifts. However, no federal laws mandate that rhythm, and state statutes on the subject vary.
Nothing in Pennsylvania state law nor in its constitution prohibits congressional redistricting from occurring more than once a decade. However, the state legislature’s partisan split is a major hurdle to drawing new district lines.
In Pennsylvania, congressional maps are passed like any normal legislation, with both chambers of the legislature passing a bill that outlines the districts, and the governor signing it.
This means that for the state to even consider passing a new map, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro would need to be on board. He’s not.
“We’re not doing that here in Pennsylvania,” he told reporters at a news conference in August. “It’s not on the table here in Pennsylvania.”
At a separate news conference, Shapiro said he thinks “it’s shameful that both the governor of Texas and the president of the United States want to rig the election in a way that preserves a U.S. House majority for them.”
The leaders of Pennsylvania’s split state House and Senate would also need to take part in any attempt to change the commonwealth’s congressional map.
In a statement this week, state House Democratic spokesperson Elizabeth Rementer told Spotlight PA that “while we continue to monitor the situation in Texas, we are also exploring all actions possible to ensure that Pennsylvania’s voters are not disenfranchised by the actions of our sister states.”
State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said in a written statement to Spotlight PA that “the realities of divided government make this a non-issue.”
Political science and constitutional law professors who spoke with Spotlight PA confirmed that nothing in Pennsylvania’s constitution would explicitly prevent lawmakers from redrawing the maps mid-decade.
Chris Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College, called it “lucky” that the commonwealth currently has divided government. While it produces gridlock in some situations (such as passing the state’s two-month-late budget), Borick said competitive political environments “keep everybody on guard.”
“It’s difficult to do what we see happening in other places [here],” Borick said of the mid-decade congressional redistricting. “Our system has produced this balanced control that, in some ways, is going to prohibit us from going down that path.”
This doesn’t mean Pennsylvania has an easy time with redistricting — or even that the process never happens mid-decade.
Divided government has lately meant that lawmakers have trouble agreeing on a congressional map. During the last redrawing process, which wrapped up in 2022, the state Supreme Court stepped in and commissioned, then chose a congressional map after lawmakers deadlocked.
Maps can also face lawsuits from party leaders and good government advocates arguing that they are unfair — even after they've been finalized by lawmakers or the courts.
In 2018, the state Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional map, which was approved during the 2011 redistricting process, was gerrymandered to dilute the power of Democratic voters. In that case, as in 2022, the justices initially ordered state lawmakers to draw a new map, then stepped in and commissioned one themselves after the legislature deadlocked.
Along with redrawing congressional districts via legislation, Pennsylvania state lawmakers redraw their own state House and Senate districts once a decade. The process for updating these maps is different — per the state constitution, four legislative leaders from both parties and chambers, as well as a chair chosen by the governor, draw and vote on new maps, which must fulfill certain minimum levels of compactness and minimize county splits. These maps, too, can lead to lawsuits.
Carol Kuniholm, executive director of nonpartisan anti-gerrymandering group Fair Districts PA, told Spotlight PA that although Pennsylvania is unlikely to take part in the nationwide redistricting craze, she worries about trickle-down impacts.
Namely, she worries that more money will be spent to influence state legislative races to gain control of congressional redistricting.
All state House seats and half the state Senate will be on the ballot in 2026, putting control of the chambers on the line. Shapiro is also up for reelection next November.
“The interest in getting control of our congressional redistricting process … depends on capturing House and Senate seats,” Kuniholm said. “There's no limit on who can pour money into Pennsylvania, and I would assume it will come from other states. It will come from billionaires coming from every direction to control this. And it's going to be ugly.”