National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC)

Since its formation, the NDRC has become a hub of Democratic redistricting efforts, working in close coordination with Democratic congressional leadership and campaign committees to both push for pro-Democratic redistricting efforts and funding state legislative campaigns in the hopes of flipping state legislative chambers to allow Democratic state lawmakers the opportunity to pass redistricting maps favorable to the party in Congress. NDRC and its affiliates were heavily involved in the mid-decade redistricting battles that unfolded in several states between Democrats and Republicans in 2025 and 2026 during the second Trump administration. ^{3 1 4 5}

Background

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its sister organizations were created in response to Republican victories at the state-legislative and congressional levels during the Obama administration. Between President Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential election and the end of his second term in January 2017, the Democratic Party lost control of nearly 1,000 state legislative, gubernatorial, and congressional seats, including 23 governorships, 33 state senates, and 32 state houses. ⁶

The NDRC describes itself as a “strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy” for Democrats, formed in response to Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 2010 through 2018 elections. The PAC’s leadership attributed those Republican victories to what it deems Republican “gerrymandering,” the practice of drawing congressional districts to favor one political party over another. ⁷

Throughout its history, NDRC has been headed by Eric Holder, who remained the public face of the organization as of 2026. Holder served as U.S. Attorney General during the Obama administration. In 2012, Holder was voted in contempt of Congress by the U.S. House for his role in the Fast and Furious investigation, related to a failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) operation. ⁸

Formation

The NDRC has boasted that it is the “first organization of its kind: A Democratic group that brings together major party organizations on a multi-cycle, state-by-state redistricting strategy ahead of the 2020 Census.” ¹

A fundraising pitch to roughly 50 major liberal donors by individuals closely connected with the Obama administration surfaced at the July 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The pitch was reportedly led by then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), then-Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), DCCC chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), and then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). ⁹

Participants in the initial fundraising pitch reportedly included representatives from AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, EMILY’s List, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and America Votes. Members of the DGA, the DCCC, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC were also present. ¹⁰

During the 2016 convention, Politico reported that then-President Barack Obama was “fully briefed on this [the NDRC fundraiser] and he is 100 percent committed, both in the short term and after he leaves office.” ^{10 11} Then-White House political director David Simas further told Politico that “literally every entity that’s involved in Democratic or progressive politics has been briefed and is supportive — that includes the [Hillary] Clinton campaign.” ¹⁰

Activities

As a political action committee, the NDRC pursues a partisan mission of electing Democrats to public office, an objective its nonprofit affiliates are more legally restricted in pursuing. The PAC’s partisan mission has frequently been couched in “nonpartisan” language. In a July 2017 op-ed in CNN, Holder wrote that the NDRC was created to fix a “broken” Congress that had “become unbound to the ‘great mass of the people’” it was created to represent, a condition he attributed to district boundaries Republicans drew after the 2010 Census. Holder argued that, by aiding Democrats in future elections, the party could redraw more favorable district boundaries in 2020 and 2021. ¹²

State Ballot Initiatives

The NDRC also targets state ballot initiatives affecting redistricting rules. These initiatives have often been organized by liberal groups friendly to the NDRC. Fair Districts PA, for example, a Pennsylvania arm of the left-leaning League of Women Voters, played a key role in litigating a court decision that tossed out the state’s 2011 congressional map. ¹³ The group has sought to introduce a ballot referendum modifying the state constitution to implement a “citizens’ commission” that would potentially favor Democrats over Republicans in future elections. ¹⁴

Targeted Litigation

The NDRC targets Republican state elected officials for lawsuits accusing them of illegally gerrymandering districts under the Voting Rights Act and related legislation. Two of these lawsuits, in Georgia and Wisconsin, were initiated by its sister organization, the National Redistricting Foundation. ¹⁵

Organizing for Action

In 2017, the NDRC announced a partnership with Organizing for Action (OFA) to pursue legislative redistricting to aid Democrats. ¹⁶ OFA is a social-welfare nonprofit formed in 2013 as a lineal descendant of President Obama’s campaign committees, run almost exclusively by Obama campaign alumni, and maintaining a close connection to the liberal advocacy group Indivisible. ¹⁷

In an email obtained by Politico in October 2017, former President Obama wrote that “OFA volunteers and supporters will provide the grassroots organizing capacity and mobilization that we’ll need to win state-level elections and move other initiatives forward ahead of the 2021 redistricting process, making sure that states are in the best position to draw fair maps.” ¹⁸

On December 20, 2018, The Atlantic reported that OFA would be folded into the NDRC. Former President Obama said the merger would create a “joint force that is focused on this issue of singular importance,” namely redistricting. ³

The NDRC has also been listed as a partner of America Votes, a left-of-center campaign coordination group created in 2003 by officials from the Clinton administration, the Service Employees International Union, and the Sierra Club. ¹⁹ The NDRC reportedly planned to triple its staff to 30 members in 2019 by merging with volunteers from OFA. ²⁰ Amanda Litman, executive director of the Democratic-aligned PAC Run for Something, was reportedly allied with the NDRC in its shared goal of recruiting Democratic candidates to run in the 12 states Holder targeted for the 2020 general election. ²⁰

2025-2026 Mid-Decade Redistricting

In 2025, the NDRC became a central Democratic actor in a round of mid-decade redistricting in several states. After Texas Republicans, encouraged by the Trump administration, advanced a new congressional map projected to create up to five additional Republican-leaning seats, the NDRC publicly attacked the plan. NDRC president John Bisognano and executive director Marina Jenkins circulated an analysis to reporters asserting that the proposed map drew fewer “opportunity districts” for Latino and Black voters than the state’s existing map. ²¹

The NDRC leveled similar criticism at a proposed Missouri congressional map, with Bisognano claiming Missouri Republicans were following “orders from Washington” rather than the wishes of their constituents. ²²

Democrats responded to the Texas map with California Proposition 50, an August 2025 ballot measure that suspended the state’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission and authorized the Democratic-controlled legislature to draw new congressional lines projected to yield roughly five additional Democratic seats through 2030. The NDRC publicly championed the California measure as a counter to Republican map-drawing in Texas. ²³

In May 2026, Holder wrote an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that state courts should toss out “skewed” redistricting maps, that Democratic-controlled states should adopt new maps to counter Republican efforts, that Congress should pass new voting-rights legislation, and that the Supreme Court should be reformed through measures such as 18-year term limits and a “binding code of ethics.” ²⁴

In October 2025, the NDRC drew attention for its role in Virginia’s redistricting referendum after donating $150,000 each to the Virginia House Democratic Caucus and the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Abigail Spanberger. The contributions coincided with Virginia Democrats calling a special legislative session and subsequent spring 2026 election on redistricting. The Virginia Public Access Project also reported more than $17,000 total in-kind support from the NDRC to Spanberger’s campaign. ⁴

Critics, including election-law experts from the right-of-center Heritage Foundation, accused the NDRC of contributing to a “pay-to-play” dynamic between party fundraising and legislative action. Republicans, including former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), argued that the redistricting push contradicted a 2020 state constitutional amendment establishing a bipartisan redistricting commission that had been approved by more than two-thirds of voters. ⁴

The group strongly supported the April 2026 Virginia referendum to amend the state constitution to allow Democratic lawmakers to pass a 10-1 gerrymandered map, eliminating four Republican-controlled congressional districts. The amendment passed narrowly, but was invalidated by the Virginia Supreme Court, which held that Democratic lawmakers violated procedural rules in the rushed effort to adopt the amendment in time to redraw maps for the 2026 election. ²⁵

Political Campaign Activities

2017 Elections

According to its 2017 year-end report, the NDRC spent $1.2 million to support the successful election of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) in 2017. ^{26 27} The report noted that Northam would be the first Democratic governor in the state to hold “veto power over the redistricting process” ahead of the 2020 census since 1991. The NDRC also reported spending $50,000 to defend three Democratic Nevada state senators in a failed recall effort. ²⁷

2018 Elections

In 2018, the NDRC began targeting suburban areas with the aim of flipping 230 Republican-controlled state legislative seats, claiming demographic changes in those areas would aid Democrats. ²⁰

The NDRC claimed it raised $35 million during the 2018 midterm cycle. ²⁰ During the election, Holder focused primarily on Wisconsin and its state supreme court, advocating the election of Rebecca Dallet by granting $500,000 to her campaign. ²⁰ Holder also supported left-wing judge Lisa Neubauer for another seat on the court with a $350,000 grant. ²⁸

2020 Elections

The NDRC was one of several left-leaning groups to partner with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) to win state legislative elections in 2020 and give Democrats greater power to determine congressional district lines based on new census data. ²⁹

In 2019, the NDRC announced plans to support candidates in spring elections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Its affiliate, the National Redistricting Action Fund, invested $350,000 in the groups Together Wisconsin Acts and BLOC, which supported the advertising and organizational components of Neubauer’s Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign. ³⁰ The National Redistricting Action Fund also invested $10,000 in Progress Iowa to oppose Iowa Republicans’ efforts to change the process for selecting state judges. ³⁰ The Iowa proposal would have expanded the power of state legislators and the governor to determine candidates for the state judicial nominating commission, which helps select judges for the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. ³¹

2022 Elections

In 2022, the NDRC announced 17 priority states, including virtually every contested gubernatorial race in states including Florida, Georgia, and Kansas, as well as other statewide officers and secretaries of states in states including Ohio and Michigan. ³²

2024 Elections

In 2024, the group announced plans to commit funds to at least 11 states, targeting both state legislative chambers in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as state supreme courts in Montana, Michigan, Texas, and Ohio. The group also identified an Ohio ballot referendum that would take redistricting power away from the Republican-controlled legislature as a priority. ³³

Litigation

The legal landscape underpinning the National Democratic Redistricting Committee’s litigation strategy shifted in April 2026, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana’s congressional map was the result of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. The decision curtailed the application of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in challenges to congressional maps, a central legal tool the NDRC-affiliated National Redistricting Foundation had used to challenge Republican-drawn maps. ³⁴

The NDRC issued, along with Democratic congressional leaders, hosted an organizing call describing the decision as “disastrous.” ⁵

Leadership

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was the founder of the NDRC and remained as the public face of the group and board chair as of 2026. ³⁵

Marina Jenkins was executive director of the NDRC as of 2026. ³⁶ Jenkins previously was litigation director for both the NDRC and the National Redistricting Foundation, and earlier worked as a private attorney at election-law and redistricting public-policy firms. She also briefly worked as a pro bono fellow for the Advancement Project, a group created in 1999 by left-leaning lawyers to oppose voter-identification laws. ³⁷

John Bisognano has been president of the NDRC since March 2023, succeeding Kelly Burton, who moved to the NDRC board. He previously was executive director until being succeeded by Jenkins in 2023, and earlier worked as the organization’s director of campaigns and state engagement. ³⁶ Before joining the NDRC, Bisognano worked as coordinated campaign director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party, served as associate director of public engagement in the Obama White House, and worked as executive director for the Association of State Democratic Chairs at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). ³⁸

Funding

The NDRC reported that it raised more than $11 million for the NDRC, the National Redistricting Action Fund, and the National Redistricting Foundation in 2017, the year the groups were created. ²⁷ According to the Washington Post, donors included Democratic “mega-donors” such as Fred Eychaner, Donald Sussman, Jon Stryker, and Martha Samuelson, as well as film director J.J. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath. ³⁹

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, as of March 2018 the NDRC had raised $1.16 million during the 2018 midterm cycle and had spent just under $350,000 on administrative and fundraising fees, mainly to the fundraising platform ActBlue and the law firm Perkins Coie. ⁴⁰ The same source reported that the NDRC’s 2018 contributors as of March 31, 2018 included the American Federation of Government Employees, which gave $100,000; the Amalgamated Transit Union, which gave $5,000; and End Citizens United, a Democratic PAC, which gave $5,000. ⁴⁰ Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) contributed $30,000 to the NDRC as part of her midterm spending. ⁴¹

In July 2025, the right-of-center watchdog group Americans for Public Trust reported that the NDRC had received a $500,000 grant from Democracy PAC, a super PAC created by billionaire George Soros. ⁴²

According to a May 2025 report by the Alliance for Consumers, the NDRC was one of several political organizations that, between 2022 and 2025, received funding from what the report labeled “shady trial lawyer PACs,” or organizations that the report alleged steered lucrative public contracts to trial lawyers who in turn give millions of dollars to liberal political campaigns. ⁴³ Such PACs included the AAJ PAC, affiliated with the American Association for Justice. According to the report, the NDRC received more than $600,000 from the AAJ PAC between 2017 and 2024. ⁴³