One of the key campaign goals for the RSLC is to increase Republican control in 12 key states, including Minnesota.

“Following its unprecedented success in the last redistricting cycle in 2010, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) announced the launch of its major redistricting initiative, Right Lines 2020, to secure fair, legal, and constitutional districts after the next Census. Expert, public estimates have revealed that winning as few as 49 state legislative seats could determine as much as a 146-seat swing in the U.S. House for the next 10 years,” the RSLC statement reads.

Democrats also have a major focus on state elections and redistricting. Their efforts to get control of the redistricting process are backed by George Soros and other Democratic billionaires, labor unions, and socialist-minded activist groups, along with big names in the party like President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Holder, who are raising hundreds of millions of dollars to fund a systematic effort to get control of the nation’s district map.

The RSLC is planning multi-million-dollar investments in key states where the Republican legislature has control or has a key role in the drawing of new congressional and state district maps. The group’s aim is to challenge radical ideologies that have grown popular among Democrats.

According to the RSLC’s website, “the Right Lines 2020 initiative will work in close conjunction with the National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT)—the Republican Party’s key resource for redistricting-related legal and data needs. The RSLC-NRRT partnership will serve as the tip of the spear of the Party’s unified efforts to secure fair, legal, and constitutional district maps.”

Adam Kincaid, Executive Director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, said in a statement: “The Democrats are definitely paying more attention this time around—look no further than the fact they have Barack Obama and Eric Holder running point on their effort. If Republicans don’t start investing in state legislative races, and the litigation and data needed to secure our majorities to the same extent the Democrats are, the GOP will see our legislative majorities erased and it will take decades to rebuild them. Fortunately, between the RSLC and the NRRT, we have the infrastructure and team we need to win.”

The Republicans and Democrats look at it this way: Winning more legislative seats, especially in a dozen or so key states, could determine more House of Representative seats in the U.S. Congress. . . .

The RSLC has targeted Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, and New York. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), chaired by former attorney general Eric Holder, has also targeted 12 states, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

2019 to 2020 electoral targets for the NDRC are to keep the majority in the House and gain more leverage in the redistricting process after
the 2020 census. . . .

Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of a high profile gerrymandering case, Rucho v. Common Cause, state legislatures will continue to have control of the redistricting process and face less legal hurdles when drawing district lines for party advantage.

Since most state Senate seats are safe for one party or the other—because of the geographic split in states between liberal-leaning cities and conservative-leaning outer suburbs and rural areas—population gains and losses could provide opportunities for a party with complete control to pick up seats in redistricting. The House seats are more unpredictable due to population changes, and the party that control of the state legislature sets the rules by which each state does redistricting.

In the United States, redistricting takes place in each state every ten years, following the census. This defines geographical boundaries, with each district within a state having about the same number of state voters. The resulting map affects the elections of the state’s members of the House of Representatives and the state legislative bodies. Redistricting has always been understood as a political gesture, which in most states is controlled by state legislators and governors.

When one party controls the state’s legislative chambers and governor’s office, it is in a strong position to gerrymander district boundaries to their advantage. Since 2010, computer technology has facilitated gerrymandering by political parties in the redistricting process.

Tom Wolf, a counsel with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program who focuses on the census and redistricting, told The Epoch Times that his organization partners with citizen groups to advise them on sound policy for redistricting as they try to work to create independent redistricting commissions or set fair criterion for redistricting.

The redistricting process is incredibly complex, and its final result will depend primarily on elections in 2019 and 2020 and the 2020 census. “The 2020 census data will hugely impact the map drawing and lock it in for 10 years,” Wolf told The Epoch Times.

A Brennan Center report called Potential Shift in Political Power After the 2020 Census reads: “If current population trends hold up for the remainder of this decade, there likely will be substantial changes in congressional representation come reapportionment time.”