Senator Bennet supports Colorado constitutional amendment for emergency redistricting
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for Colorado governor in 2026, would support a constitutional amendment to allow the state to redraw its congressional districts to offset partisan gerrymandering in other states.
President Donald Trump has urged Republican-led states to redraw their congressional lines so the party can pick up more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives next year. Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio are among the states that have completed mid-decade redistricting to give Republicans an advantage. California voters approved a ballot measure last month to redraw the state’s maps to counter Republican gerrymandering.
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Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is also running for governor in 2026, was the first statewide elected official in Colorado to support the idea of redrawing the state’s congressional districts mid-cycle. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is running for attorney general in 2026, has also supported a ballot initiative to allow for emergency redistricting.
A state constitutional amendment proposed for next year’s Colorado ballot would give the governor emergency redistricting power to offset “national redistricting imbalances.” The earliest any new maps could be drawn under that amendment would be for the 2028 election cycle, and Bennet previously said that would be “too late.”
Now Bennet says “we have no choice but to fight back” as Trump and Republicans followed the “dangerous path” of mid-cycle redistricting.
“I support a one-time change to Colorado’s constitution so we can do our part. That process begins in 2026, but our maps won’t change until 2028,” Bennet said in a statement. “Right now, the most important thing we can do is flip the House of Representatives in 2026.”
An independent redistricting commission for the first time redrew congressional maps in Colorado in 2021, creating the highly competitive 8th Congressional District on the Front Range north of Denver. Democrats represent four districts and Republicans represent four districts.
