Kamala Harris said Democrats should consider expanding the Supreme Court, pushing for statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and rethinking the Electoral College as the party confronts a new round of fights over political power. Speaking on a call with Emerge, Harris said Democrats needed to “neutralize this red state cheating,” arguing that “there’s a brutality at play on the other side, and a ruthlessness,” and adding, “And we need to play to win.”
Her remarks came after Democrats absorbed two major setbacks in the redistricting wars. In late April, the Supreme Court moved to curb the use of race in drawing electoral districts, a ruling that effectively gutted Black-majority districts held by Democrats across the South. Then, in early May, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a Democratic-friendly gerrymander on a procedural concern, tightening the map fight just as both parties are scrambling to redraw congressional seats before November's midterm elections.
Harris framed the issue as more than a technical dispute over district lines. She said, “What they have done with this decision, by saying that the politics of redistricting is okay, is they are back-dooring racism through politics,” and added, “What they are doing is intentionally about trying to suppress the voice of the people.” The comments place her squarely in the middle of a Democratic debate over whether the party should respond to Republican gains by changing the rules rather than accepting them as written.
The political backlash was immediate. House Speaker Mike Johnson called Democrats “institutional arsonists,” saying, “It’s a dangerous thing, a dangerous gambit,” and, “You don’t just blow up the system when you lose.” He said Harris, as a former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate, was “outrageous” for suggesting Democrats should “pack the Supreme Court or destroy these institutions because they lost.” Representative Ralph Norman went further, calling Harris’s comments “totally insane” and saying, “That’s why we can’t let her become president.”
The fight now is no longer just over districts on a map. Harris has put institutional change back on the table at the same moment Democrats are losing ground in court and under pressure to answer a simple question: whether they will keep playing by rules they say are being used against them, or try to rewrite some of those rules before the next election cycle hardens them in place.
