California congressman on gerrymandering

(CBS, KYMA) - Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about gerrymandering.

Last year, the State of California passed Proposition 50, a measure aimed to redraw the state's congressional districts, similar to recent redistricting efforts in Texas.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that a congressional map in Louisiana was a racial gerrymander, even though it was drawn to comply with the landmark law aimed at protecting minority voters.

When asked if he was concerned about Republicans holding the advantage given the recent court decisions, Rep. Lieu said:

"I would disagree that Republicans may have a nine-seat advantage because that's based on data from last term, and the Trump coalition has completely collapsed because of skyrocketing gas prices, surging inflation. And if you look at the polling data and the results we've had in special elections this year as well as last year, we think the Republicans may have an advantage of anywhere between three to five additional seats. That is not enough for them to stop a Democratic blue wave coming this November. And the best thing to do when a court does something outlandish, like the Virginia Supreme Court is to get back up and fight and make sure we win in the midterms."

According to Brennan, Democrats spent more than $60 million on the redistricting effort in Virginia, prompting her to ask if the funds would have been better spent on the front line candidates and arguing on the issues, and whether they are going to somehow continue to fight it in court, to which the congressman said:

"What the Virginia Supreme Court did was not only wrong, it was disgraceful. They basically said, hey, Virginia, spend all this taxpayers' money holding an election, do all this stuff and, oh, by the way, just kidding, that election didn't count. The court could have stopped this by not having the election in the first place. They suckered the people of Virginia. It was a complete disgrace. Now, most of the money that Democrats spend in the race is called (c)(4) money, so that's not direct, hard money that we're going to need for races in the midterms...We're going to look at all available options. We're definitely going to try to keep fighting this battle. And I just want to note the best way again, if someone shoves you down, is to get right back up and fight back. And that's what we're going to do. And of these four seats in Virginia, we believe we're going to win two of them in the midterms, and that's what we're doing. We're fighting back."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Lieu, click here.