New congressional district maps are due in Wisconsin on January 12, the submission of which will set off another round of fighting between the Republican state legislature and Governor Evers, who is a Democrat, about the future of the political landscape in the key swing state.

After a lawsuit last year, the Wisconsin supreme court ruled in favor of tossing maps drawn by state Republicans. The ruling came after a high-profile state supreme court election there that saw Judge Janet Protasiewicz emerge victorious, delivering liberals on the court a 4-to-3 majority. 

The court ordered that the Republican-controlled state legislature submit new maps that Mr. Evers is willing to sign into law by January 12.

After the maps are submitted, two redistricting consultants hired by the court, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, Jonathan Cervas — who redrew New York’s congressional and state Senate maps — and a University of California Irvine professor, Bernard Grofman, will review the maps, make changes, and submit their own.

Within 10 days of submitting their maps, parties will be required to submit the arguments in support of their maps. Reports from Messrs. Cervas and Grofman are due one week later, on February 1, and the maps are scheduled to be in place by March 15.

At stake in this process is control of the state legislature and potentially the state’s congressional delegation. Under the current maps, Republicans control 64 of 99 seats in the state assembly, 11 of 22 seats in the state senate, and six of the eight House seats from the state.

Republicans dominate the state’s legislature and House delegation despite Wisconsin being one of the most competitive states in the country in terms of the popular vote.

In 2020, President Biden carried the state by less than one point in the popular vote. In 2022, Senator Johnson carried the state’s Senate election by about one point as well. This makes Wisconsin, according to World Population Review, among the most gerrymandered states in the country.

State Republicans have telegraphed that they intend to fight the court’s order throughout the process. In a motion filed last week asking the state supreme court to reconsider its ruling, attorneys for state Republicans argued that the ruling had been “pre-decided” and that the court’s schedule was unfair.

“The Court’s warp-speed remedial schedule is geared toward delivering new maps by the 2024 elections, without regard to existing district lines, and thereby changing ‘the outcome of the 2024 election,’ as promised,” attorneys for state Republicans said.

State election officials maintain that in order for non-gerrymandered maps to be in place in time for the 2024 elections in Wisconsin, they must be set by mid-March.

The speaker of the state assembly, Robin Vos, has also suggested that Republicans will attempt to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We will pursue all federal issues arising out of the redistricting litigation at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Mr. Vos said in a ruling.

In conversation with the Wisconsin Examiner, Mr. Evers has called the opportunity for new maps “a game changer,” adding that he plans to submit “appropriate” maps.
“One of the things that holds us back is the makeup of the Legislature,” Mr. Evers said. “There’s no legislator on the Republican side that could say, ‘Yeah, this is a red state.’ We are a purple state at worst. And we need to have the maps reflect that.”