A Conversation with Loyola Law School's Justin Levitt: What's Behind the Push to Redraw Congressional Districts Before the 2026 Midterms?

Please join us on Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific for the next episode of Election Science Office Hours, a webinar series presented by the Caltech Election Integrity Project and moderated by R. Michael Alvarez, PhD, Flintridge Foundation Professor of Political and Computational Social Science at Caltech and Co-Director, Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy (LCSSP).

In this episode, Professors Alvarez and Levitt will discuss why there is currently so much talk about redistricting. They will address the following questions and more: Why is Texas redrawing their Congressional district map? Why are states like California now talking about redrawing their Congressional district maps? How might this all play out in the courts? How might this affect state primary elections? If many states redraw their Congressional district maps, what might happen in the 2026 midterm elections?

Justin Levitt is Professor of Law and the Gerald T. McLaughlin Fellow at Loyola Law School. He has returned to Loyola after serving from 2021-22 as the White House's first Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights. There he assisted the President in his efforts to make sure that every eligible American has secure, reliable access to a meaningful vote; to provide equitable representation in government; to restore trust in a democracy deserving of that trust; and to bolster avenues by which Americans build community and engage in civic participation. He had previously served in federal government as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice where he primarily supported the Civil Rights Division's work on voting rights and protections against employment discrimination.

Levitt served as a law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He holds a law degree and a masters degree in public administration from Harvard, and was an articles editor for the Harvard Law Review.

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For more information on the Caltech Election Integrity Project, please visit our website at https://www.protectingtheelection.us/ or email us at electionintegrity@caltech.edu.