Money is one lever. The other two are who gets to vote where, and what happens to elected officials who break ranks. Both are documented in the public record.
The House margin is 220–213. Mid-decade redistricting across several states shifted roughly nine seats before a single ballot was cast in 2026 — close to the entire working majority.
Redistricting itself is legal and both parties do it; California's counter-map is on this page too. What a federal three-judge panel found unusual about the Texas map was different: substantial evidence of racial gerrymandering, weakening Latino and Black voting power, in a case where the court said it was "much more than just politics."
The second lever is simpler. A congressman who pushed for Epstein transparency was attacked repeatedly, primaried with roughly $1.8 million, and defeated. Colleagues watched. A retiring senator said plainly that members are afraid of becoming the next target — which is the entire purpose of doing it in public.