Washington, D.C. – On Friday, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), was a featured speaker at the 2025 Texas Tribune Festival, where he joined Melissa Murray, a professor of law at the NYU School of Law and co-host of Crooked Media’s Strict Scrutiny podcast, for a conversation on the national gerrymandering crisis, which began in Texas at Donald Trump’s direction. The full conversation can be viewed here. 

Quotes as delivered by Attorney General Holder in the interview are below: 

“It means that somebody’s trying to cheat. We can come up with all the technical explanations and ‘what’s gerrymandering’ and ‘what districts should look like.’ We can get into that if you want to, but the bottom line is that these folks are trying to cheat. [Republicans] are concerned that the record that they have to run on is not one that is going to garner a lot of votes in 2026. They’re concerned that because of the work that NDRC has been doing in conjunction with a lot of its partners has produced what the New York Times has called the fairest maps in a generation. And they’re concerned about running on fair maps because their candidates aren’t necessarily good. The programs that they are trying to put in place aren’t necessarily ones that are popular.” — Attorney General Eric Holder on what Republican mid-cycle redistricting means and why they are pursuing it

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“It is a race to the bottom. But the way out of it is to put in place federal legislation. That we could’ve done when Democrats had a trifecta: President, Senate, and House of Representatives. But Senators Manchin and Sinema did not want to carve out the filibuster to allow the passage of legislation that would have banned partisan gerrymandering in addition to a whole host of other positive things around voting rights. Next time we have that chance—and it could be after the 28’ election—we have got to use the power that election would give us and use it in a positive way. I’ve often said, progressives and Democrats, we are almost allergic to the use of power— allergic to the acquisition and use of power. And we’ve got to get over that. It doesn’t mean if we acquire power, we’re going to do the same kinds of negative, special-interest-driven things that Republicans and conservatives have done. But, you know, Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t afraid of acquiring and using power. Lyndon Johnson wasn’t afraid of acquiring and using power.” — Attorney General Eric Holder on how we can put an end to the national gerrymandering crisis

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“We formed up the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in 2017. I remember the first press conference we had; I made what I thought was a great speech. I was watching the CNN cameraman, and he was looking at his watch, rubbing his eyes. And I said ‘OK!’ So, gerrymandering and redistricting was not really getting people. I think we made a lot of progress, but I think we got really supercharged by what happened here in Texas. Now people get it. People understand, ‘Well, wait a minute: five seats? Mid-cycle? How are you doing this?’ And so now I think everybody understands how unfair the process is; the negative consequences of it. And so now when I speak to audiences, it’s gotten better. Especially after Texas, people are like, ‘Yeah, what is it that I can do?’” — Attorney General Eric Holder on the increased awareness of the issue of gerrymandering after Donald Trump launched his gerrymandering scheme in Texas

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