In the final two weeks of 2021, the highest redistricting stakes are in three crucial states with independent commissions: Arizona, California and Michigan. All three are racing against late December deadlines to finalize maps, and all three are poised to be rare hotbeds of competition California owing to its sheer size and prohibition on partisan data, and Arizona and Michigan because they're the only two large swing states with commissions.
Democrats at the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission notched a rare win as the independent chairwoman sided with them on a starting point for the congressional map, only to see the GOP make gains when the new districts were unveiled.
With no real public education campaign in place to let Arizonans know even the basics of redistricting, the work of educating voters about the once-a-decade process of redrawing Arizona’s political boundaries fell to advocacy groups.