Republican state lawmakers want to redraw Arizona’s congressional districts following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday altering redistricting laws.
Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) said the justices’ divided decision against an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander” to create a new majority-Black district in Louisiana could be an opportunity for Arizona to take part in a national redistricting arms race, as Republican and Democratic-leaning states seek to redraw congressional maps in their own party’s favor.
Petersen said Thursday that Republican legislators plan to file a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s congressional maps before the end of the year. It’s a maneuver necessary to win a judgment that would force Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw those maps mid-decade.
“It’s really the same process except now you don’t calculate race into how you do the lines,” Petersen said.
Traditionally, Arizona and other states redraw congressional and legislative district lines every 10 years, in alignment with new census data. In many states, lawmakers are the ones tasked with drawing those boundaries, but thanks to a ballot measure approved by state voters in 2000, in Arizona, the process is carried out by a bipartisan panel known as the IRC.
Members of the IRC did not respond to requests for comment.
Commissioners are constitutionally required to take certain factors into account, like keeping communities of interest together and utilizing municipal boundaries.
The state constitution doesn’t require the IRC to consider race in those words, but it does require the IRC to follow federal laws including the Voting Rights Act. Designed to prevent racial discrimination, the Voting Rights Act is described by critics as racist in itself because it factors in race to boost minority voting power.
Wednesday’s ruling is the latest in a series of decisions that have watered down the Voting Rights Act issued by the conservative-majority Supreme Court.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan described the ruling as a “now-completed demolition” of the Voting Rights Act in her dissent.
With Wednesday’s ruling, a plaintiff trying to make a case that a certain district dilutes the population of a racial minority will have to prove there was a discriminatory intent attached to the creation of the district, which makes it harder to win.
Unlike other states, where Democratic and Republican lawmakers have sought to redraw congressional maps ahead of the midterm elections, potential new maps in Arizona likely wouldn’t take effect until the 2028 election cycle.
Petersen said it’s too late in this election cycle for the maps to be redrawn quickly enough to affect this year's elections. Instead, he said the earliest races which could see redrawn maps are the 2028 elections.
The gerrymandering trend
The ruling comes as several states have joined onto an intentional gerrymandering trend. It started in 2025 when Texas redrew its maps to add more Republican seats, as requested by President Donald Trump.
Democrats in California mobilized a countereffort, with the state passing legislation next to negate Texas’ actions soon after.
Then Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah and Virginia redrew their maps. Florida is now in the process of doing the same.
Arizona has nine congressional districts, represented by six Republicans and three Democrats.
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Find everything you need to know about elections in Arizona and Maricopa County from KJZZ's politics team. -
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