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Democrats gerrymandering congressional districts in their favor. this makes no sense. look at this district. it wraps around there. she s avedvocating a non-partisan approach. a fifth grader can look at these two maps next to each other and see what looks fair and what looks like it was created with partisan purposes. this is our historic house chamber. reporter: cnn reached out to maryland state democrats in leadership and on the redistricting committee. none of them agreed to an interview. when you let politicians draw their own maps, be they republican or democrat, they re going to hold onto their power, creating partisan representation isn t good for citizens. you know, most people are not on the far left or the far right. you know, most people reside somewhere in the middle on most ....
reporter: texas democrat eddie bernice johnson is retiring after 30 years in the house and says, though gerrymandering is hardly new, it s becoming more extreme. when these lines start being drawn with the help of computers where they can be so exact that they can break up a bedroom if they wanted to, it is hurting our nation. reporter: kimble brace has one of those computer programs. this is showing you concentration of where the trump vote was being cast. reporter: he s hired by states across the country to draw their maps and showed us just how advanced the technology is now. by the time you get down to the census block level, you can end up getting exact populations for any given piece of geography. reporter: to be sure gerrymandering is happening in state houses all across the country, including those with democrats in charge. maryland republican delegate is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against ....
i don t believe so, no. he served on the texas house redistricting committee. his own district is becoming more republican. when the districts are drawn so that republicans are in safe republican seats, democrats are in safe democrat seats sure. isn t that by definition incumbent protection. not necessarily. even if it s a republican district, they still have to have a republican primary. the incumbent isn t necessarily safe. reporter: true incumbents aren t necessarily safe, but the threat to them in politically gerrymandered districts full of voters from their own party comes from within, not across the aisle, pulling lawmakers even more to the extreme. texas state representative, chris turner, a democrat. there is no scenario in which a republican could win my house district. that could pull you left if you did have a primary opponent. sure. there s no question. reporter: there are different kind of gerrymandering, packing, ....
And tonight a closer look at a battle that could shift the balance of power in this country for the next decade. i m talking about redistricting and the often legal rigging that occurs when partisans in state houses intentionally distort maps to keep themselves in power, a practice known as gerrymandering. dana bash takes us to texas, one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the nation. reporter: we re in downtown austin. yes. this is an area that right now is represented by a republican. it s going to change with the new lines. it is. it is. reporter: austin, the capital of texas, is a pretty liberal town. it s a key reason republicans drew new congressional maps that took city blocks like this and progressives who live here out of their gop districts. here in austin, what the republicans did was pack as many democrats into as few districts as possible. the republican districts are not only just going to be republican, they re going to be ....
Very republican. and the democratic districts are going to be very democratic. reporter: will hurd is a moderate texas republican who left congress last year frustrated about the lack of bipartisanship. he says new gerrymandered maps will make partisanship even worse. you have the house that is extreme in one direction or another. that means people are no longer forced to work together. reporter: more on that in a bit. the constitution says every ten years after the census, state political maps are redrawn based on population changes. in recent decades, state legislatures in both parties have taken to gerrymandering congressional districts. redistricting is simply the process of redrawing the lines. gerrymandering is redrawing the lines with the intent to benefit a particular party or group or ....