However, the most underreported story of the night are the huge Republican gains at the state level, a whole swathe of state legislative houses have flipped to the Republican Party. That will come in handy later on when the districts are redrawn. Pennsylvania is a case in point.
Yes and no. It's true, and it does help the Republicans. But they were in such good shape in 2002 that, at best, it can only preserve the advantage they held in drawing maps then instead of creating a new one. That will come in handy in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, not to mention southern states, but ultimately they have a very favorable national map to begin with so they need to continue to win elections on their own merit.
A lot of Republican seats they won yesterday are simply going to take the place of Democratic seats that would have been drawn away in redistricting. Ohio Rs are going to have to sacrifice one R for sure and will have a difficult time making that second set lost a D, although they can try. Tennessee and Indiana just banked the gains they would have made next time anyway. Pennsylvania is a good point, they can still draw PA-12 out of existence and cause a Democratic loss, and while they have a high-water mark in the east, they will be able to do what they can to try to preserve their holdings.
