Mid‑decade Redistricting Arms Race

State legislatures are engaging in iterative mid‑decade mapmaking (Texas, California, Virginia, etc.) where one party's gain prompts counter‑moves elsewhere, turning redistricting into a national arms race rather than a state‑level corrective. The result is cascading litigation, ad hoc constitutional amendments, and the tactical carving of districts (e.g., Virginia's 'lobster' 7th) to flip delegation majorities before elections. — If mid‑decade remapping becomes a norm, it will institutionalize cyclical, retaliatory election engineering with broad consequences for congressional control, judicial caseloads, and public trust in elections.