South Carolina Republicans won five of the state's seven U.S. House seats in the midterms under the map they already had. They had considered a map aimed at winning all seven. Using the votes cast in November, Decision Desk HQ had Republicans ahead in four districts on the proposed map. Indiana stuck with its old lines and sent six Republicans to the House. In North Carolina, the new map was in place by Election Day. Democrat Don Davis won the 1st District anyway.
The South Carolina House passed the proposal in May, but it stalled in the Senate. The plan would have carved up Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn's (SC-06) district, spreading its voters across five districts. When Decision Desk HQ regrouped the votes from the House races voters actually had on their ballots, Democrats led in the proposed 1st, 2nd, and 6th. Their leads were 2.4 points in the 1st, 1.6 in the 2nd, and 5.9 in the 6th. Instead of the seven seats the map was drawn to deliver, the exercise produced four.
South Carolina and Indiana Republicans drew 7-0 and 9-0 maps that never passed. In 2026, both would have backfired SC: 4R-3D on the House vote vs 5R-2D on the current map IN: Bayh (D) carried all 9 proposed districts for SoS. Dems won 3 seats on the current map @DecisionDeskHQ https://t.co/W5lV3Kq9QD
— Jake Marks (@jakemarks42) November 5, 2026
The Indiana House passed a map that would have put all nine seats within reach for Republicans. By the time it got to the Senate in December 2025, though, the bill lost, 31 to 19. That left the old districts in place for November, when Republicans won six seats, and Democrats won three.
Before the vote, Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader Chris Garten asked his colleagues to go ahead with a redraw in the middle of the decade. He made the case on the Senate floor, where lawmakers had spent hours debating the bill after hearing from the public earlier that week.
“So I ask you, do not shrink from this moment. Do not hide behind tradition when the future of the Republic is at stake.”
For Indiana, look one race down from Congress. Beau Bayh, the Democrat running for secretary of state, won by 9.2 points. Jake Marks of Decision Desk HQ tallied those votes inside the congressional lines that were proposed but rejected by state Republicans. Bayh’s narrowest margin was 3.4 points, and his widest was 15.9.
The proposed map divided Indianapolis and Lake County among districts that also took in rural areas. Before the election, the new districts all leaned Republican by roughly seven to 12 points in Decision Desk HQ's analysis. On the secretary of state's vote, all nine went for Bayh.
This is insane! Here is a map of yesterday’s Indiana House results if they were drawn under the attempted Republican gerrymander map from last Fall. Thank you to @Vulst3 for breaking down the data to make this map. The gerrymander could’ve netted us a 9-0 or 8-1 map potentially! https://t.co/nAli6x50CS
— Indianapolis Councilor Nick Roberts (@nickroberts317) November 5, 2026
In my home state of North Carolina, we got to see a new map used in a real election. Democrat Don Davis had held the 1st District by fewer than two points in 2024. State Sen. Ralph Hise, who led the push to redraw it, spelled out what he wanted from the new lines.
“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation.”
Some of the voters Davis had in 2024 moved into the 3rd on paper, and some voters from the more Republican 3rd moved into the 1st. Trump’s 2024 vote would have given him a 12-point win inside the new 1st. The people who actually got a ballot in the new 1st this fall sent Davis back to Congress. He’d beaten Republican Laurie Buckhout two years earlier. The new lines gave her another shot, and she lost again.
Republicans had another loss in the 9th. Democrat Richard Ojeda beat Rep. Richard Hudson, who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee and was in charge of helping Republicans win House races around the country.
Of the eight targeted seats that had flipped in the Nov. 5 tally, five were in California. California redrew its map in response to Texas, and Democrats won all five seats they targeted. They picked up another in Utah. The two Republican pickups were in Texas and Tennessee.
Those eight flips resulted in four more pickups for Democrats than for Republicans. Democrats went on to take the House, and a tally of flips under the new maps can only tell us who won those races as they were actually run.
The extra Republican seat Hise described never came through.
