The GOP’s Bill to ‘Rip House Seats From Dem States’

A New Republican Bill Brings Efforts to Meddle With Apportionment Into Focus

TPM has covered apportionment for years — in part, because right-wing activists are so intent on meddling with it, and in part because of the impact that meddling could have. As we’ve been reporting, the Census Bureau is currently attempting to exclude many categories of immigrants from the count used for apportionment, a violation of the 14th Amendment’s clear mandate that apportionment must count “the whole number of persons in each State.”

That, yes, is a set of phrases that might make the average reader’s eyes glaze over, but what it means is this: Republicans are trying to claim more power in Congress and the Electoral College by counting fewer people in blue states and regions. That power would shift to red states and regions. This plan violates the Constitution, though right-wing lawyers have mobilized a set of arguments they will use to argue before the Supreme Court that it does not. This is another power grab, albeit a wonkier and more statistics-focused one than such things as Stop the Steal. Unfortunately, the planning for this power grab within the executive branch involves terms and concepts that put most Americans to sleep.

Fortunately, President Trump’s allies in Congress are helping to make it all more explicit. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) this week introduced the “Make Apportionment Great Again (MAGA) Act.” It, too, would do what the Census Bureau is attempting to do: exclude categories of immigrants from apportionment. Clyde gave Fox News an exclusive heads up that his bill was coming. “‘MAGA Act’ could rip House seats from Dem states ahead of next presidential race,” Fox’s headline declared, perfectly accurately.

Super helpful in amplifying this drum we’ve been banging.

“While we wait for the Senate to finally take action on the SAVE America Act, we must also recognize that the ballot box is not the only way non-citizens can impact American elections,” Clyde said in a statement. “Counting all residents regardless of citizenship in the U.S. census allows non-citizens, including illegal aliens, to influence the makeup of congressional seats and the distribution of Electoral College votes.”

“Republicans have long warned that Democrats’ intentional illegal invasion and sanctuary policies are rooted in a desire to boost blue states’ power,” Clyde added, a nod to a version of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.

To clear up something you might be wondering: non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections (and incidents of non-citizens voting are vanishingly rare). But, again, the Constitution explicitly states that the “whole number of people” in a state must be included in apportionment, which determines the number of seats each state gets in the House and, as a result, the number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College. Under the Constitution, members of Congress represent the people who live in their area, including immigrants — they do not, solely, represent their voters. Clyde’s bill distorts those constitutional realities.

It would mandate reapportionment ahead of the 2028 election.

Trump’s Fed Chair Goes Rogue

The Fed raised rates yesterday, despite Trump’s repeated demands that it lower them, attempts to exercise control over the Fed, and efforts to take U.S. trade policy hostage in order to force his preferred outcomes.

• “LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT… BE PATRIOTS for a change,” Trump had threatened the Fed earlier this month. He is also attempting to fire one of its board members, Lisa Cook.
• Nonetheless, the board, chaired by Trump-appointed Kevin Warsh, voted unanimously to raise rates one quarter of a percent.
• Warsh, who has reportedly spoken with Trump often, refused to comment on those calls in a press conference after the rate decision.
• Trump responded on Truth Social, invoking his threat to “stop trading,” sentiments he echoed almost exactly at a rally in the midterms swing state of North Carolina last night.

Tabs

• Open AI disclosed new instances of its models jumping their guardrails or otherwise appearing to be “misaligned,” the New York Times reports.
• Postal Service head David Steiner, a Trump appointee, is frustrated that Congress has not adequately funded his agency and that he keeps ending up in political battles. The USPS was, of course, central to a Trump plot to meddle with the midterms that the Supreme Court put on hold. Now Steiner wants to quit, Reuters reports. “The message was, this isn’t what he signed up for, and he didn’t come on board to get beat up like this,” one source told Reuters.

Man of the Hour

It’s Speaker of the House Mike Johnson who, after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) tried to force a vote on the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, simply opted to send members home until after the midterms — sparing Hegseth, and himself, the embarrassment.

Are We at War?

Contra Todd Blanche, Trump says: “yes”!

“That war? That war is gonna end very soon,” he said last night. “Watch. You just watch. Trump was right about everything.”