With all but three AHPA states (Florida, Hawaii and Washington) nearing Election Day and all other AHPA state primaries concluded, the midterms will provide the first real measure of how newly drawn congressional maps influence electoral outcomes. In the wake of an unprecedented round of mid-decade redistricting, ten states (Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah) adopted new congressional districts following the Supreme Court’s May ruling on a key component of the Voting Rights Act.

Driven largely by gains in Texas and Florida, which together contributed nine seats, Republicans have secured a 16-seat advantage over Democrats. By comparison, Democrats gained only six seats, with California accounting for five, thanks to the voter-approved Proposition 50 Initiative. Additional Republican gains came from Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Utah, each of which redrew its congressional map to add one Republican-leaning House seat.

Georgia Republicans chose not to move forward with congressional redistricting, leaving the focus in Hawaii, Washington, Kentucky, Oregon, Illinois, Maryland and the District of Columbia on candidate competition and state ballot measures rather than debates over congressional maps. As legislators return to their districts for the August recess, attention is increasingly turning to the approaching government funding deadline. While the House passed a stopgap funding measure in July and the Senate approved its own continuing resolution on August 3^rd, Congress has yet to reach a bipartisan agreement on longer-term federal spending, leaving the possibility of a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on September 30^th.