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The redistricting group backed by former President Barack Obama has raised nearly $11 million. | Getty

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the group backed by former President Barack Obama and chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder to make Democrats competitive in redistricting fights, will finish July reporting $10.8 million, according to its financial filings.

That money is split between its various entities: a federal PAC, plus 501c3 and 501c4 entities that house much of its structural work. Most of the money comes from high dollar donors, though the NDRC says that there was a total of 10,000 people who gave overall, with a rush of small donors after the election when the group was officially formed.

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Mega-donors were key: Chicagos Fred Eychaner and Floridas Donald Sussman gave $500,000 each, while Jon Stryker gave $200,000. Director J.J. Abrams and his wife, actress Katie McGrath, gave $125,000 each.

Much of the fundraising was through five briefings for donors conducted by Holder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, but an event that Obama headlined in Washington earlier this month gave the efforts a significant boost.

Democrats are hoping that the group will be able to coordinate efforts between activists and interest groups in prioritized state legislative and governors races for the next round of redistricting after the 2020 census, as well as being the home of legal challenges on the state level and at the Supreme Court. Thats an enormous array of ambitious activities, in which theyll be going up against well-funded interests across the country. In most states, it is expected to be a major uphill battle to change the balance of power that could change the maps.

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But people involved say their start has them feeling confident.

"The NDRC's significant fundraising in its first six months will allow us to take on gerrymandering and reform our electoral system, Holder said. This will be done through our courts, at the ballot box, and through support of ballot initiatives that create non-partisan commissions and other electoral reforms.

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LOS ANGELES More than two years after leaving the Obama administration, former Attorney General Eric Holder is reentering the political fray.

His goal: to lead the legal resistance to Donald Trumps agenda and perhaps even run against the president in 2020.

Seized by a sense of urgency to oppose Trump and restore what he regards as Americas best self, Holder is mulling a White House bid of his own, according to three sources who have spoken to him and are familiar with his thinking.

Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes, Holder told Yahoo News in an exclusive interview about his plans. But thats about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general. Theres a justified perception that Im close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country.

Now is the time to be more visible, Holder added. Now is the time to be heard.

On Monday morning, Holder launched this new phase of his career by traveling to California to speak out.

Nearly all of the officials who stepped to the podium in the lobby of Los Angeless Ronald Reagan State Building Monday were Californians. They showed up, and summoned the local press corps, in order to promote a piece of legislation called SB 54 (aka. the California Values Act), which is designed to prevent the Trump administration from forcing local police departments to assist in the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Critics and even some supporters have said it would transform the whole of California into a so-called sanctuary state.

The lineup included outspoken anti-Trump Democrat Kevin de Leon, president pro tempore of the California state Senate, who introduced SB 54 last December and is now working to push it through the legislature; Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who finally endorsed the controversial measure; other top cops from Long Beach and Sacramento; and Linda Lopez, head of immigrant affairs for L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The only outsider was Holder the lanky lawyer with the short gray hair and the thick black mustache.

One of Barack Obamas closest friends and most prominent appointees, Holder isnt from California. (He lives in the Washington, D.C., area, where hes a partner at Covington & Burling.) He no longer works in law enforcement. And he isnt an immigration activist.

For the last few months, however, Holder has quietly been serving as outside counsel to the California legislature, working with de Leon and other Democrats to craft an aggressive legal response to what they consider President Trumps most threatening policies.

Holders presence at Mondays press conference was meant to emphasize that relationship to dramatize the issue, to raise the consciousness of people, to help the legislation along, he told Yahoo News.

And so, in the Reagan building lobby, Holder explained why he thinks SB 54 is constitutional (the federal government does not have the ability to force states to do things that are inherently federal in nature) and why, in his view, the Trump administrations threats to withhold federal funding in response arent (the federal government cant coerce states into doing something states dont want to do by threatening to withhold support). Meanwhile, Holders team at Covington released a lengthy memorandum backing him up.

But Mondays event was also something bigger: a coming-out party of sorts for a figure who sees his work in California as a springboard to a new role as the key legal architect and one of the major public faces of the nationwide progressive pushback against President Trump.

Rarely mentioned as a 2020 contender and controversial while in office, Holder would enter any Democratic primary contest as a long shot. Even his engagement with the resistance is something of a surprise. For most of his career, Holder was seen as a conventional, mild-mannered figure. But he grew more pugnacious as attorney general, in part because Republicans never stopped attacking him, and he wound up pursuing a sharply progressive agenda during Obamas second term.

Even so, Holder insists that he never envisioned himself as an anti-Trump crusader.

I thought, frankly, along with everybody else, that after the election, with Hillary Clinton as president, I could walk off the field, he said. So when she didnt win, I thought, Well have to see how this plays out. But it became clear relatively soon and certainly sooner than I expected that I had to get back on the field and be in effective opposition.

California state Senate President pro tempore Kevin de Leon, left, and Holder on June 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Andrew Romano/Yahoo News)

In the months ahead, Holder plans to expand the scope of his opposition to Trump. Part of that expansion will center on the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a new, Obama-backed group thats working to prepare Democrats for 2020, when states will redraw the boundaries of their legislative and congressional districts for the first time in a decade.

Up until my now our efforts have been largely organizational raising funds, generating support, Holder told Yahoo News. But now were moving into an operational phase where well be filing lawsuits and Ill be more visible talking about those issues.

Another part of Holders campaign will involve explicitly political appearances. On Saturday, for instance, the former attorney general waded into Virginias marquee 2017 gubernatorial race with a keynote address at the state Democratic Partys annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, in which he excoriated Trump and embraced the resistance the first of a series of such speeches, with North Carolina next on the calendar.

We have come too far as a nation, sacrificed too much, made too much progress, to allow the state of our nation to be undermined by the extreme part of a divided minority administration, Holder said, describing Trumpism as the worst of us. If opposition is to be the course and it must be we must recognize and remember that the power of the American people has been too often underestimated. Once roused we are a mighty force.

But the most intriguing and perhaps most consequential aspect of Holders ambitious new effort is a scheme, still in its early stages, to create a national, privately funded, PAC-like organization that would develop and coordinate legal resistance strategies among various states and localities that are determined to stymie Trump.

California is in so many ways a trendsetter, whether it is in pop culture or in politics, Holder told Yahoo News. Thats why it was such an attractive possibility for me to go to California and work with the legislators there in crafting their response to the Trump administration because I think what California does gives courage to other states and other public officials in other parts of the country who might be thinking about principled opposition. It shows how that opposition can take shape.

So far, the legal resistance has been largely improvised, with young liberal lawyers spontaneously descending upon airports in the wake of Trumps Muslim travel ban and state attorneys general individually butting heads with Jeff Sessions, their federal counterpart.

Holder wants to change that.

You look at this as kind of a continuum, where you oppose the policy as it is proposed, you hope that it doesnt become law, but then, to the extent that it does, you use the courts to try to overturn it, he explained. As the different states and different public officials start to stand for the same things and take the same positions as they start to use the same tactics the opposition becomes that much more effective.

For now, Holder will continue to set the stage in California. (Earlier this month, the state Assembly decided not to renew his $25,000-a-month contract; the state Senate, however, plans to retain his services indefinitely.) And while immigration isnt the only hot-button topic on Holders to-do list de Leon is also soliciting his advice on climate change and health care its the one thats front-and-center right now, as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ramp up noncriminal deportations and the courts consider whether Trumps executive order on sanctuary cities is constitutional.

Were here with a very clear purpose: to underscore the undeniable truth that preserving and enhancing trust, real and genuine trust between law enforcement and the diverse communities they serve, is essential for the safety and well-being of all residents of this great state indeed, this great nation, Holder said at Mondays event, alluding to the argument that undocumented immigrants will stop reporting crimes to the local cops if those same officers are also tasked with deporting them.

California is leading, Holder concluded. California is doing the right thing. This is something that needs to be done nationwide.

If Holder gets his way, he will spend the months and years ahead ensuring thats exactly what happens.

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Eric Holder joins the anti-Trump resistance and mulls a ...

"The creation of this new federal commission on election integrity by this administration is another frightening attempt to suppress the votes of certain Americans," Holder told attendees of the NAACP National Convention in Baltimore. "Make no mistake, this commission, led by a fact-challenged zealot, will come up with bogus reasons why further restrictions should be placed on the right to vote."

While Holder did not name him directly, the commission is led by Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State who is an advocate for tougher voting restrictions. Four Democratic lawmakers last week wrote to Vice President Mike Pence requesting that Kobach be removed from the commission.

Since its creation in May, Trump's commission investigating voter fraud has been met by charges from Democrats and voting rights advocates that it could lead to voter suppression. The commission's request that state election officials turn over data and personal information on the nation's 200 million voters also sparked bipartisan outrage with many states saying they would not comply.

Trump has defended the mission of the commission, however, telling the group at its first meeting Wednesday, "we want to make America great again. We have to protect the integrity of the vote and our voters."

Holder said that the right to vote in the United States is "under siege" and must be protected.

"At a time when we should be expanding opportunities to cast a ballot, there is a movement in America that attempts to make it more difficult, to suppress the vote," Holder said.

He also pushed back at the President's oft-repeated claim that 3 million to 5 million people may have voted illegally in the 2016 election, suggesting that it is more likely that a person would be struck by lightening than that they would impersonate another person at the polls.

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Eric Holder: Trump voter fraud commission led by 'fact-challenged zealot' - CNN International

Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently weighed in on reports that President Donald Trump has considered firing Robert Mueller as the FBIs special counsel.

Trump cannot define or constrain Mueller investigation. If he tries to do so this creates issues of constitutional and criminal dimension, Holder wrote on Twitter.

Holders comments come after the Washington Post reported earlier this week that Trumps team of attorneys are exploring ways to limit and undercut Muellers investigation. Mueller has been tasked by the Department of Justice to lead the bureaus investigation into Russian interference and allegations that Trumps campaign may have colluded with Russian operatives.

Many Republicans and top Trump supporters are unhappy with Muellers investigation and especially unhappy with the team of lawyers Mueller has hired to assist him in the investigation, many of which have ties to Democrats.

Critics say that because of this and other factors, Muellers probe will not be objective.

Technically speaking, however, Holders tweet isnt exactly correct. According to Business Insider, who spoke with former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, Trump has several legal maneuvers that would help take Muellers heat off of him.

Trump could either instruct deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to fire or limit Mueller, or Trump could repeal a set of special counsel regulations adopted in 1999 to fire Mueller himself. Neither of these options are favorable, however, and an attempt to remove Mueller could get the ball rolling on impeachment proceedings as they are what began former President Richard Nixons fall, Katyal said.

Trumps other option would be to work out a deal with Rosenstein to rein in Muellers power. This option is least likely to carry political ramifications.

However, many found Holders attempt to lecture Trump about the law pretty rich. After all, Holder was deemed responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-running operation that led to a Border Patrol being shot by an American firearm.

Holder was even held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to the case during the course of a congressional investigation into the operation.

People were quick to remind Holder of his hypocritical past:

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Eric Holder lectures Trump about Constitution instantly gets fact checked over 'Fast & Furious' past - TheBlaze.com

Congress is broken.

Our Founding Fathers envisioned a Congress that would faithfully represent and be accountable to its constituents. In 1788, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 57: Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty, gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the chords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people.

Today, Congress has become unbound to the great mass of the people. The House recently passed a health care bill that only 16% of the public supports, according to a recent poll. A narrow majority in the House rushed to pass the bill without any meaningful debate and the Senate is considering similar legislation. Whether its healthcare or countless other issues, voters want one thing, but Congress does the exact opposite or nothing.

How did Congress become so untethered? Looking at how the US House districts were drawn gives us great insight.

Extreme partisan gerrymandering reached new levels during the 2011 redistricting process. Propelled by precision targeting technology and special interest funding, Republicans drew maps in state after state that packed Democratic voters into bizarrely shaped districts and protected Republican incumbents. Despite winning fewer than half of all votes for the House, Republicans still walked away with 55% of House seats in 2016.

With fewer competitive congressional seats, members of Congress are incentivized to serve narrow, partisan interests. This creates a Congress driven by primary party politics and ideological extremism, not one accountable to the will of the majority of voters.

Unfortunately, the American people are living with the result of this broken Congress: increased partisanship, government shutdowns, the birth of the Freedom Caucus, and a Congress that refuses to hold President Donald Trump accountable.

Thats not only bad for Democrats, its bad for democracy.

So how do we go about fixing our democracy? We know from our history that the future is built by those who show up and by those who engage, resist, and overcome. That has been the story of America from the framers who planned a revolution, to the abolitionists who embraced emancipation; from the workers who fought for a decent wage, to the women who reached for the ballot; from the marchers who demanded their civil rights, to the activists who secured marriage equality for all of us. Today, once again, millions of people of strong will and good faith are asking what they can do for the country they love.

Thats why, this January, we launched the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) in order to draw district lines in a fair manner.

With the NDRC, Americans will have a chance to fight back, regain our democratic voice, and fix our democracy. After the data from the 2020 census is released, states around the country will draw new maps that will shape our Congress for the next decade. Every state has its own rules for drawing Congressional districts, but most rely on collaboration between the governor and the state legislature.

The NDRC is a new effort to create more representative districts with a targeted, state-by-state strategy. Our strategy involves four key components: overturning illegal gerrymandering in the courts; winning critical state elections; investing in ballot initiatives on redistricting; and building the infrastructure for the 2021 redistricting process.

Weve already seen major progress. Over the last several years, the Supreme Court and other federal courts have struck down illegal gerrymandering in North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. And more states may soon follow, with ongoing cases in Texas and Wisconsin. These cases have already produced fairer maps and led to two new African-American members of Congress in 2016.

We know theres a long path ahead. But the work of ending illegal gerrymandering is critical to the future of our democracy. We have an opportunity and an obligation to fix a broken Congress and to build the kind of nation that speaks with our voice, the voice of the diverse and compassionate community that America has been, that we are, and that we can be once again. It will be up to all of us to embrace that challenge in the service of the more perfect Union that all Americans deserve.

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Eric Holder: This is how you fix a broken Congress - Gant Daily