By Randy Myers
When you consider the portrait of Capitol Hill painted by CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju, the federal government shutdown that began October 1 hardly seems surprising.
“The two parties are probably more polarized than ever,” Raju said during an October 8 presentation at the 2025 SVIA Fall Forum. He described a House of Representatives where many members don’t talk to counterparts across the aisle and a national capital where public dialogue is “incredibly coarse,” with little middle ground to be found.
“You tend to think … you’ve reached the bottom, and you continue to go further and further to the bottom,” he remarked. “That’s the unfortunate reality of the situation.”
Raju noted that he has covered four government shutdowns over the course of his career and that the current closure did not appear to be moving toward a resolution anytime soon.
He attributed the broader problem in part to gerrymandering of state election maps, which has left politicians increasingly beholden to primary electorates rather than general-election swing voters—rewarding confrontation over compromise.
It may get worse, he suggested. Raju said President Trump has upped the ante with a “norm-shattering” exercise in mid-decade redistricting, pressuring Texas to redraw its maps to add five safe Republican seats to its congressional delegation.
“Typically redistricting is done at the beginning of a decade to reflect a new census,” Raju observed. “Trump, however, wanted this done now to give him an advantage in the (2026) midterm (elections). Democrats have tried to respond in kind … but generally speaking red states have fewer restrictions on gerrymandering. So, Trump is taking full advantage, pressing the likes of Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, and others to do the same (as Texas).”
Turning to the midterm elections, Raju predicted an expensive, high-stakes contest. He said Senate Democrats face a “very difficult climb back to the Senate majority,” needing a net pickup of four seats. Their best chances, he added, are flipping GOP seats in North Carolina and Maine, “but finding the other two will be very, very difficult.” Control of the House, he said, will be a “district-to-district slog” because House lines are so gerrymandered that few swing districts remain truly in play.
“Beyond the race for the midterms, gerrymandering has significant implications for governing in Washington,” Raju concluded. “More partisan districts mean (more) members who will mainly care about what their base thinks and not swing voters in a general election. Primaries will be essentially enough to win. General elections will mean much less. That means less incentive to compromise … and a greater likelihood of gridlock.”
Reporting on the Chaos: Building on Facts and Context
Asked how the Trump administration’s lawsuits against traditional media outlets have affected his access to sources, Raju said they have not. Nor have they changed his outlet’s standards. “We still have a vetting process on how we report facts and news and news stories,” he said, noting that controversial stories undergo legal review as part of that process.
Raju’s personal approach to reporting begins with preparation. He recalled phoning a former senator early in his career without a plan for the interview and being brushed off—an object lesson in doing the homework before dialing. Today, his mornings start at 5 a.m., often with a 6 a.m. check-in with his team. After dropping his kids at school, he joins a 9 a.m. network editorial call. By 9:30 a.m. he is usually in the Capitol and knows what he’ll be covering, whom he’s covering, what he’ll ask, and how he’ll ask it.
The goal, Raju said, is fact-based reporting unencumbered by preexisting expectations or biases—avoiding being “locked into a frame of a story before reporting it out.”
Although politicians often see reporters as adversaries, Raju said building trust with sources can make relationships productive. One of his rules is always to give anyone directly involved in a story a chance to comment before publication and to reflect their comments “accurately and fairly.”
“Even if a story does not reflect well on someone, if you have been straightforward with someone and treated them fairly, you can build a trusting relationship,” he said. “And in Washington, that matters a lot. That doesn’t mean you have to be best friends with your sources … it just means you have to have trust.”
At the same time, he added, if an interview subject becomes combative, tries to filibuster, or won’t answer the question, his mantra is to stay calm and focused—and not let them off the hook