Optimal Gerrymandering in a Competitive Environment

We analyze a model of optimal gerrymandering where two parties receive a noisy signal about voter preferences from a continuous distribution and simultaneously design districts in di¤erent states and in which the median voter in a district determines the winner. The form of the optimal gerrymander involves slicesof extreme right-wing voters that are paired with slices of left-wing voters, as in Friedman and Holden (2008). We also show that, as one party controls the redistricting process in more states, that party designs districts so as to spread out the distribution of district me-dian voters from a given state. (JEL D72, H10, K00)