Democratic group backed by Eric Holder, Obama plans to target GOP gerrymandering

A group formed by former Attorney General Eric Holder and backed by former President Obama plans to invest heavily in 2018 elections in certain states to try and block Republicans from taking advantage of the redistricting process, according to The New York Times.

"From my perspective, success is if you break a trifecta," Holder told the Times, adding: "I don't think that in December of 2018, you measure success only by whether you have assumed control of a particular state."

Holder said that the group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, has already raised more than $16 million already and hopes to raise $30 million in total.

The group plans to target states including Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas.

The former attorney general discussed the strategy with Obama in Washington on Monday, according to the report. When he formed the group last year, he told the Times that Republican and Democratic incumbents should "get more comfortable with the notion that with fairly drawn districts, elections might be more significantly contested." It is he said, "a good thing for our democracy."

This comes as the Supreme Court this week denied a Republican request to put a a decision on hold, allowing a Pennsylvania congressional redistricting process to proceed. The decision came four days before the Republican-controlled legislature's deadline for submitting a replacement map for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to consider.