May 27, 2026 11:47 AM UTC

Jeff Hurd To Chair "Horse Has Left The Barn Working Group"

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• by: Colorado Pols

A press release from the bipartisan House Problem Solver Caucus, a naively well-intentioned effort that has been exploited over the years by unscrupulous partisan politicians looking for cover like ex-Sen. Cory Gardner, informs us that freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction has been named to co-chair something called the Gerrymandering Working Group:

Today, the Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chairs Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) announced the formation of a bipartisan working group focused on reforming the process that has led to extreme partisan gerrymandering across the country…

“Redistricting is a constitutional responsibility, and it should be approached with transparency, consistency, and respect for the rule of law,” said Gerrymandering Working Group Co-Chair Congressman Jeff Hurd (CO-03). “Congressional representation should reflect the people and communities being served, not the political interests of whoever happens to be in power. Americans deserve confidence that districts are drawn through a fair and transparent process, that communities of interest and rural voices are meaningfully represented, and that public trust remains at the center of these decisions. Colorado’s independent redistricting model has demonstrated that citizen-led, bipartisan approaches can help strengthen confidence in the process while remaining grounded in constitutional principles. Neither party should be able to manipulate district lines to guarantee outcomes or insulate politicians from accountability. The goal should be durable, commonsense standards that people trust regardless of which party benefits in any given cycle. Competitive and fairly drawn districts help ensure elected officials remain responsive to the people they serve and focused on solving problems rather than deepening partisan division. I am proud to co-chair this bipartisan working group because Americans deserve a process grounded in fairness, transparency, and public trust that strengthens confidence in our institutions.”

Here we have an eloquent endorsement of the evenhanded bipartisan redistricting commission process passed by Colorado voters in 2018, a process local Republicans nonetheless complain about because reform didn’t improve their dismal performance in subsequent elections. We would have perhaps broken this lengthy statement up into a couple more paragraphs.

But there’s just one thing missing: the reason for the rush by states on both sides to redistrict mid-decade to begin with.

In particular, one name: Donald Trump, whose brazen demand that every state with a Republican majority redraw their congressional maps to preserve the razor-thin GOP majority ahead of the midterms they are expected to lose initiated the current trend. Creating a “working group” to “reform redistricting” without being honest about why this spate of mid-decade gerrymanders is taking place is just another lie of omission for the benefit of Republican politicians trying to fake integrity without running afoul of the Dear Leader.

That more or less sums up Jeff Hurd’s narrow lane today, after being disowned and then restored to Trump’s good graces for his past dissent. With Republicans generally acknowledged to be winning the gerrymandering fights playing out ahead of the elections this year, Hurd’s grandstanding against the nationwide trend primarily helps the opponents of Colorado’s ballot measure to temporarily draw a 7-1 map for 2028 to counterbalance Republican gerrymandering elsewhere.

There’s a good possibility that the Republican drive to gerrymander mid-decade will fail or even backfire as voters angry over the direction of the country since 2024 turn out in droves this November. Once Trump is finally out of office, there will be a need, and likely strong public support, to reverse the gerrymandering that Trump forced on the country in 2026.

But that campaign will have to be honest about how we got here. We see little sign of that so far from Jeff Hurd.