Former Clinton strategist James Carville does a podcast with former Clinton cheerleading journalist Al Hunt, and on their Wednesday recording of Politicon's Politics War Room, they reacted to the redistricting battle currently going on in Texas. While Hunt claimed Republicans are “fighting dirty,” Carville gave the game away and claimed that in order “to save democracy,” Democrats need to add states and Supreme Court justices despite the fact they tried to do that a few years ago, even before the current Texas situation.
Despite the fact that California is currently more gerrymandered than Texas, Hunt declared, “Democrats, starting with California, would be crazy to play by these rules and unilaterally disarm. Trump will keep playing dirty elsewhere. So, the big question is whether they can win or at least neutralize this. Maybe not, but with Trump, there's no honor in American politics, so go after him every day.”
Carville mourned, “Well, let's start with the overall picture. Even right now before they do this, it's something over 52 percent of the popular vote. The Democrats have to win to control the House. Now, traditionally, we're taught in 9th grade civics that the House is the people's House. It runs every two years. It's the most responsive to the will of the people. Well, it's not really that right now, and it's gonna get worse.”
Instead of complaining, Democrats should try appealing to people outside of the country’s biggest cities, where their voters are more concentrated.
However, complaining is what Carville preferred, “The other fact we need to know is that 18 percent of the population elects 50 United States senators. Now that can't change because that's in the Constitution. The other thing we need to know is that the Republicans in this century, in six elections, have won the popular vote twice. They control two-thirds of the Supreme Court. That's not good.”
Looking ahead to 2028, Carville claimed that if Democrats win the House, Senate, and White House, “They are just gonna have to unilaterally add Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states.”
Additionally, he claimed, “They may have to expand the Court to 13 members. I don't—any of those things in isolation. I would be skeptical about, I would be cautious about, I would say, "Well, I don't know if that's the greatest idea in the world. You're opening Pandora's Box" or all kinds of things. I don't—if you want to save democracy, I think you've got to do all of those things because we just are moving further and further away from being anything close to a democracy.”
Redistricting is a normal part of life. Democrats are just objecting to the use of it in the middle of the decade. There haven’t been new states added since 1959, but the whole point of bringing in Alaska and Hawaii as a pair was to offset any changes to the partisan balance of power. The Supreme Court hasn’t expanded since 1869. There is simply no comparison between what Texas is doing and what Carville proposes.
Here is a transcript for the August 6 show:
Politicon Politics War Room with James Carville and Al Hunt
8/6/2025
AL HUNT: But Democrats, starting with California, would be crazy to play by these rules and unilaterally disarm. Trump will keep playing dirty elsewhere. So, the big question is whether they can win or at least neutralize this. Maybe not, but with Trump, there's no honor in American politics, so go after him every day.
JAMES CARVILLE: Well, let's start with the overall picture. Even right now before they do this, it's something over 52 percent of the popular vote. The Democrats have to win to control the House. Now, traditionally, we’re taught in 9th grade civics at the House is the people's House. It runs every two years. It's the most responsive to the will of the people.
Well, it's not really that right now, and it's gonna get worse. The other fact we need to know is that 18 percent of the population elects 50 United States senators. Now that can't change because that's in the Constitution. The other thing we need to know is that the Republicans in this century, in six elections, have won the popular vote twice. They control two-thirds of the Supreme Court. That's not good. And if you want to, you know, the Democrats talk about democracy and you have these people—importance of democracy, and preserving democracy, and saving democracy. Well, the truth of the matter is, people are right when they say this, this democracy is really imperfect, and they're going to have to do—if the Democrats win the presidency, the Senate and the House in 2028, which is not impossible.
I don't know if you say likely or possible, I don't know what word, you know, but it's certainly not impossible. They are just gonna have to unilaterally add Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states. They're gonna have to, the Congress does give the Constitution gives Congress power over federal elections. I don't think they can redistrict, but they, they think they gonna do, they're gonna have to do it. They're just gonna have to do it and they may have to expand the Court to 13 members. I don't—any of those things in isolation. I would be skeptical about, I would be cautious about, I would say, “Well, I don't know if that's the greatest idea in the world. You're opening Pandora's Box” or all kinds of things. I don't — if you want to save democracy, I think you've got to do all of those things because we just are moving further and further away from being anything close to a democracy.
