By: Jaidyn McKinnie, Joint Center Research Intern and UCLA Student

American democracy is entering a dangerous stage of decline. While coverage focuses largely on the most recognizable signs of democratic backsliding, such as attacks on free speech and the use of state force against peaceful protesters, a quieter crisis is reshaping the foundation of representation itself.

The second Trump administration is advancing a national policy infrastructure aimed at reshaping the democratic system from within, not by suppressing votes directly, but by manipulating the structures that determine who gets represented at all. Across the country, redistricting battles are being used to minimize the influence of Black voters and weaken the power and electability of Black legislators who represent them. These maps fracture diverse districts, erase majority-Black constituencies, and recast racial gerrymandering as a partisan strategy.

Gerrymandering is the process of drawing legislative maps to favor one group over another. Partisan gerrymandering exists in both parties, but the distinction between partisan and racial gerrymandering is crucial. The latter targets voters based on race, undermining equal protection and silencing political voices that have historically been excluded. Today, partisan gerrymandering often serves as a facade for racial redistricting, allowing maps that weaken Black and brown representation while appearing procedurally neutral.

The result is a democracy that technically counts every vote, but ensures that some count for less.

These efforts to reshape representation operate through coordinated pressure on state and federal institutions. Republican-controlled legislatures in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida have advanced or are seeking to advance maps that fracture diverse districts and erase Black-performing seats to manufacture partisan strongholds.

In Texas, the 2021 maps, already among the most gerrymandered in the nation, were challenged by the Department of Justice and civil rights groups for intentionally weakening minority voting power, marginalizing the very communities largely responsible for Texas’s growth. The latest maps, under Trump’s order, have only deepened the imbalance, entrenching partisan and racial control.

This September, Governor Kehoe of Missouri approved new maps that work to unseat Representative Emanuel Cleaver, one of the state’s two Black congressmembers. His district, once a Black stronghold centered in Kansas City, is being divided among three predominantly white districts, reducing the concentration of Black voters and weakening their collective influence. Similar redistricting patterns in Florida and Texas, where the districts of Representatives Al Lawson, Marc Veasey, and Al Green were dismantled, follow the same logic.

These efforts reveal a shift from engaging voters to reshaping the systems that define their representation.

Now, all eyes are on California, where the passage of Proposition 50 has become the first major test of how far states can go in countering gerrymandered maps. The measure introduces new electoral mechanisms for redrawing maps and is expected to offer an example of how other states approach redistricting and opposition efforts ahead of the Midterms. While Black-centered organizations such as the NAACP have invested heavily in the measure, its potential impact on Black voting power remains uncertain, though analysts suggest it may strengthen Latino representation. Still, its outcome will shape national discourse on representation and determine whether state-level reforms can meaningfully alter the balance of power.

While some states experiment with expanding representation, the federal landscape is moving in the opposite direction by dismantling DEI programs, eliminating race-conscious hiring, and purging staff in agencies that oversee civil rights enforcement. These measures reflect a broader effort to weaken the institutions that sustain equitable representation and to undermine the legitimacy of a multiracial democracy.

Despite this, the Congressional Black Caucus is the largest it has ever been, reflecting decades of organizing and civic engagement that expanded voting access. But this progress is increasingly fragile. Gerrymandered maps that fracture Black communities and eliminate majority-Black districts weaken not only the ability of Black legislators to hold their seats but also the capacity of Black voters to shape outcomes. When predominantly Black constituencies are divided across multiple districts, disguised as routine political realignment, it functions as a racialized control that suppresses minority ballot strength.

Voting power determines not just who wins elections, but whose communities receive investment, whose schools are funded, and whose voices are heard in policy debates that shape everyday life. When Black voters are packed into a few districts or split among many, their concerted voting strength is diluted, muting the political voice that has driven social and economic advancement for generations.

The threat facing the United States is not only that democracy could fail, but that it could survive in form while dying in function. Ongoing efforts to manipulate representation risk creating a government that looks democratic but operates as a controlled system of exclusion. To protect multiracial democracy, the nation must confront not only the authoritarianism of power, but the quiet redrawing of the lines that decide who holds it.

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