Arizona's redistricting commission passed a new congressional map Wednesday that could hand the GOP six of its nine congressional districts in 2022, Politico reported.
The new House map creates two swing seats in the suburbs of Phoenix currently held by Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Greg Stanton, D-Ariz.
Schweikert's district will become more Democratic, with the partisan voting index (PVI) moving from R+13 to R+7, according to FiveThirtyEight. Stanton's district becomes more competitive as well, moving from a solid D+15 to only D+1.
The suburb of Tucson also gets a new swing seat, with retiring Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick's new district stretching further North and West. The change of Kirkpatrick's seat from D+2 to R+7 likely initiated her early retirement.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom O'Halleran, R-Ariz., a moderate who represented an already red district, had his seat become even redder. The new seat will take in the entirety of Yavapai County and the City of Prescott, moving its PVI from R+6 to R+15.
"The map achieves what Democrats say they want nationally. It maximizes the number of competitive seats in Arizona," said Adam Kincaid, the executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust. "There's three good Republican seats. There's two or three good Democrat seats. And then there's three to five competitive seats, depending on the cycle."
Democrats spent much of the independent commission's deliberations accusing the chair of favoring Republicans.
"We are in a state now that has five Democrats, and four Republicans that have been elected to Congress," Democrat commissioner Shereen Lerner said Tuesday. "There is no excuse for drawing a six to three map that favors either party as part of that."
Two Democrat commissioners, two Republican commissioners, and the independent chair all voted for the new map.
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