(NEXSTAR) – While Congress is deadlocked over government funding, some states are moving forward with efforts to redraw congressional lines.
North Carolina is the latest to join the fight after Republican state leaders there announced plans to vote next week on redrawing its map to favor Republicans.
It comes as California, Texas, Missouri and more states consider mid-decade redistricting in an effort to impact the balance of power in Congress.
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“We’ve really got an arms race now,” Professor and Director of Political Management at George Washington University Todd Belt said.
Belt says shifting district lines though could end up backfiring.
“Because you don’t want to put too many of the other party’s people in your district,” Belt said.
California will test that out in three weeks with a special election on a new map aiming to elect five more Democrats to Congress.
“I just got my ballot,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) said.
California Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove says this is to counteract Texas’s new map. President Trump asked that state to try to elect five more Republicans in Congress.
“This is a moral defense about an outrage that has happened in Texas and potentially may grow into other states,” Kamlager-Dove said.
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California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose district is affected by the new map, sees the measure differently.
“It’s a vote between do we gerrymander in California or do we not gerrymander in California,” Kiley said.
Meanwhile House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he supports California’s effort.
“Democrats are going to take back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said.
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But as new maps face legal challenges and the midterms inch closer, Belt says that can put courts in a tricky position.
“We’ve seen this happen a couple times where states have been forced to redraw their maps, and the courts have actually tried to decide whether there was enough time to redraw their maps in order to inform voters of exactly which district they’re in,” Belt said. “So this can get really messy.”
States typically redraw districts every decade after the census.
