As Democrats aim to capitalize on this year’s Republican turmoil and start building back their own decimated bench, former Attorney General Eric Holder will chair a new umbrella group focused on redistricting reform — with the aim of taking on the gerrymandering that’s left the party behind in statehouses and made winning a House majority far more difficult.

The new group, called the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, was developed in close consultation with the White House. President Barack Obama himself has now identified the group — which will coordinate campaign strategy, direct fundraising, organize ballot initiatives and put together legal challenges to state redistricting maps — as the main focus of his political activity once he leaves office.


Though initial plans to be active in this year’s elections fell short, the group has been incorporated as a 527, with Democratic Governors Association executive director Elisabeth Pearson as its president and House Majority PAC executive director Ali Lapp as its vice president. They’ve been pitching donors and aiming to put together its first phase action plan for December, moving first in the Virginia and New Jersey state elections next year and with an eye toward coordination across gubernatorial, state legislative and House races going into the 2018 midterms.

“American voters deserve fair maps that represent our diverse communities — and we need a coordinated strategy to make that happen,” Holder said. “This unprecedented new effort will ensure Democrats have a seat at the table to create fairer maps after 2020."

Obama strongly endorsed Holder’s selection, and is planning more involvement in state races this year. But it’s in his post-presidency that redistricting will be a priority for his fundraising and campaigning.

“Where he will be most politically engaged will be at the state legislative level, with an eye on redistricting after 2020,” said White House political director David Simas, who’s been briefing Obama on the group’s progress since it started coming together at the beginning of the summer.

The group’s incorporation follows a pitch made to major donors in Philadelphia during the Democratic convention in July, led by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico. The group hasn’t filed any financial reports yet and isn’t releasing figures for money raised, but operatives say several organizations have donated initial funds in its early stages of fundraising.

“The piece that was missing is this group, where each of us has a role, and each of us needs to focus on our piece of it, but there needs to be the overarching organization to make sure there are no holes,” Pearson said.

The NDRC aims to tackle a central problem for Democrats: They complain about the need for redistricting reform all the time and have dozens of aligned interest groups pushing their own efforts, but none has gone far — and that’s left the party on the ropes every cycle. Lower Democratic turnout in midterm years has enabled Republicans to win governors' races and statehouse races that consolidate power in state capitals and Washington by being the ones to draw the maps that everyone needs to run on.

They argue that Democrats have been losing races in large part because they’ve let Republicans tilt the field. The result: The ranks of up-and-coming Democrats have been thinned, and there are fewer and more difficult races for the ones who are left to run on.

Donald Trump is "an acute symptom of their party in decline, and Republican leadership can't help but be aware that their majorities in the U.S. House and in many statehouses are inflated at best, wholly artificial at worst,” said Carolyn Fiddler, communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the Washington group that coordinates among statehouse races and is also a partner in the NDRC. “A coordinated effort among Democrats to prevent another round of GOP gerrymandering is Republicans' worst nightmare for the long-term health of their party.”

One number that’s on their mind: Republicans got 52 percent of the votes in 2014 but won 57 percent of the seats.

Asked about that argument and the Democrats’ larger redistricting effort, Katie Martin, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Sunday, “I don't think there is a reason for us to comment on this.” The Republican Governors Association did not return an email requesting comment.

But Bill McCollum, the former Florida attorney general who’s the chair of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said he feels confident that the GOP will be able to keep its edge.

Democrats “have not focused on the kind of national effort to identify strong candidates and target specific races at the state level,” McCollum said, arguing that already, “it’s too late for the redistricting cycle for that kind of move to have much of an impact.”

McCollum said he doesn’t believe the Trump effect this year or beyond will trickle down to Republican state legislative candidates, and that the farm team they’ve been building since 2010 will hold and be central to the Republican rebuilding expected to begin Nov. 9.

The gubernatorial candidates who win in 2017 and 2018 are the ones who’ll be in office to approve the maps for the 2022 elections, put together by the state legislators elected along with them. The NDRC plans to hold regular meetings of Democratic groups and allies, building collaborative strategies on recruitment, ad spending, get-out-the-vote and other efforts to maximize resources and impact. House campaigns would then work with state Senate and assembly campaigns, unions, progressive organizations and others in high opportunity areas, hoping to push up their numbers as much as possible ahead of the 2020 census.

“How does the work that we’re going to be doing anyway in House races, how can that trickle down to state legislative races — are there places where you get more bang for your buck?” said Lapp, whose super PAC boosts House Democrats in competitive races.

The group is planning to hire staff starting by December, though it will still rely on groups like the DGA and House Majority PAC for some of the legwork.

“We’re developing a comprehensive, unified plan that represents tactically the way we increase Democratic power in the next redistricting that’s state specific,” said Mark Schauer, a former Michigan congressman and failed 2014 candidate for governor who’s serving as a senior adviser to the group. “By 2017, we’ll speak with one voice under the auspices of the NDRC to big donors around the country, pointing them to the best ways to impact redistricting.”