12/21/2018 12:51 pm ET
Former President Barack Obama has taken to heart one cause above others since leaving the White House: the fight to end gerrymandering.
On Thursday he announced that the progressive Organizing for Action group, which formed out of the pieces of Obama’s re-election campaign, would be folded into the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
In a Medium post, Obama called gerrymandered maps “undemocratic” and “unrepresentative,” saying they have “too often stood in the way of change.”
While OFA had previously partnered with the NDRC, the former will now cease to exist, according to The Atlantic. Its resources will be funneled to help the redistricting group fulfill its mission to fairly redraw state maps where district boundaries have been manipulated to make Democrat wins more difficult.
The merger will create a “joint force that is focused on this issue of singular importance,” Obama said in a Thursday evening phone call, per The Atlantic.
Gerrymandering reform has become a major focus for the former president in the Trump era. Obama and other Democratic leaders launched the NDRC in October 2016, and it is currently chaired by former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder.