Politics Two Weeks Ago, Democrats Were Winning the Redistricting Wars. What Happened? For a moment, Democrats thought they had thwarted Trump’s plan to rig the midterms. Then the courts stepped in. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Maxine Wallace/Washington Post via Getty Images and Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Surge , the newsletter that covers the most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. Welcome to this weekend’s edition of the Surge, a politics newsletter that, in light of the hantavirus outbreak, sadly will be canceling all of our future vacations to rat-infested garbage dumps . Speaking of rat-infested garbage dumps, we’ve got two entries about California politics this week. John Roberts is deeply disappointed in those who view the Supreme Court as political. And you, the taxpayer, may soon have the great honor of paying for Donald Trump’s ballroom—congrats! Let’s begin with the dramatic turn against Democrats in the redistricting wars. 1.…