by Texas’s Austin (AP) After weeks of Democratic protests and a growing national redistricting struggle, the Texas House on Wednesday approved new congressional districts that will give Republicans a greater advantage in 2026.
In order to improve his party’s chances of retaining the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, President Donald Trump pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade change of congressional boundaries, which resulted in the approval. Before becoming official, the maps must be signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott and approved by the state Senate, which is controlled by the Republican Party.
The best opportunity for Democrats to thwart the redraw, however, had come with the Texas House vote.
Democratic lawmakers fled Texas earlier this month in protest, delaying the vote by two weeks. When they returned, they were subject to 24-hour police surveillance to make sure they showed up for Wednesday’s session.
California’s Democratic-controlled state legislature is expected to approve a new House map this week that creates five new districts with a Democratic leaning, after the Texas designs were approved on a party-line vote of 88 to 52. However, the California map would need to be approved by voters in November.
Along with vowing to contest the new Texas map in court, Democrats have also expressed dissatisfaction about Republicans’ use of political power before enacting legislation in response to last month’s devastating floods.
Texas maps openly made to help GOP
Republicans in Texas publicly stated that they were working for their party. The U.S. Supreme Court has permitted politicians to redraw districts for blatantly partisan reasons, according to state representative Todd Hunter, who drafted the legislation officially adopting the new plan.
Hunter, a Republican, stated on the floor that the plan’s fundamental objective is simple: enhance Republican political performance. Hunter grabbed the floor once more to describe the entire debate as a partisan battle after over eight hours of discussion. When the entire world is listening, what’s the difference? Democrats don’t like it, but Republicans do.
Democrats claimed that the dispute went beyond partisanship.
According to State Representative Chris Turner, citizens elect their representatives in democracies. This law reverses that and gives Washington, D.C., officials the power to select their constituents.
John H. Bucy, a state representative, accused the president. According to Bucy, this is Donald Trump’s map. Since Trump is aware that the public is rejecting his program, it blatantly and purposefully creates five extra Republican seats in Congress.
Redistricting becomes tool nationwide in battle for US House
As Democratic state lawmakers got ready to meet in California on Thursday to amend the state’s map to add five more Democratic seats, the Republican power move has already set off a nationwide tit-for-tat contest.
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California declared, “This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, and this is new energy out there all across this country.” Additionally, we will fight fire with fire.
Because California typically uses a nonpartisan committee to draft the plan in order to avoid the kind of political squabble that is taking place, a new map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November. Both Newsom and former President Barack Obama supported the 2008 ballot proposal that established that procedure. However, in an indication of Democrats’ growing resolve, Obama supported Newsom’s proposal to redo the California map on Tuesday night, claiming it was essential to halting the GOP’s Texas maneuver.
During a fundraiser for the Democratic Party’s major redistricting arm, Obama stated, “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach.”
The GOP presently controls the House of Representatives by just three votes, and the party of the incumbent president typically loses seats in the midterm election. Trump’s efforts to redraw the map are expanding beyond Texas. Republican leaders in conservative states like Missouri and Indiana have been pressured by him to attempt to add more Republican seats. Before Texas moved, Ohio Republicans were already making changes to their map. Meanwhile, Democrats are considering reopening the maps for New York and Maryland.
However, compared to Republican-run states, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California’s or other redistricting limitations, giving the GOP more latitude to quickly redraw boundaries. For instance, New York won’t be able to create new maps until 2028, and then only with consent from the electorate.
Texas Democrats decry the new maps
The only thing the outnumbered Democrats in Texas could do was scream and threaten to sue to stop the map. The new Texas plan can only be stopped by opponents claiming it violates the Voting Rights Act’s need to keep minority communities together so they can choose representatives of their choosing, as the Supreme Court has approved simply political gerrymandering.
Democrats pointed out that courts have determined that the Texas legislature violated the Voting Rights Act in redistricting in every decade since the 1970s, and that civil rights organizations had an ongoing case against the 2021 plan created by Republicans that made similar claims.
Republicans argue that compared to the old map, the new one adds more additional majority-minority seats. Democrats and other civil rights organizations have retorted that the GOP primarily uses a numbers game to cut the number of state House seats that will be held by a Black legislator in half.
State Representative Ron Reynolds pointed out that the nation recently commemorated the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the Voting Rights Act and cautioned Republican members about their legacy if they supported what he referred to as this racial gerrymander.
Reynolds, a Democrat, stated that history will be examining the individuals who made the judgments in the body today, much like it did for those who were on the wrong side of history in 1965.
Republicans hit back at criticism
In the landslide vote on Wednesday, Republicans were satisfied to let their numbers speak for themselves and spoke much less. A few retaliated against Democratic grievances as the day went on.
Former Trump spokesperson State Rep. Katrina Pierson remarked, “You call my voters racist, you call my party racist, and yet we’re expected to follow the rules.” Like you, there are Republicans in this chamber who are Black, Hispanic, and Asian.
It was evident that House Republicans were frustrated by the Democrats’ departure and ability to postpone the vote. In order to avoid having to meet again for a second vote following Senate ratification, the GOP employed a parliamentary trick to take the second and final vote on the map.
As the debate began, House Speaker Dustin Burrows declared that the chamber’s doors were shut and that any member who wanted to leave had to obtain a permission form. It took over eight hours after final passage for the doors to be unlocked. State Representative Nicole Collier, a Democrat who objected to the round-the-clock police surveillance, has been confined to the House floor since Monday evening.
Collier was joined Tuesday night by a few Democratic state politicians for what Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez called a “sleepover for democracy.”
After the Democrats departed Texas on August 3, Republicans obtained civil arrest warrants to bring them back, and Republican Governor Greg Abbott petitioned the state Supreme Court to remove a number of Democrats from office. A $500 charge is also imposed on the lawmakers for each day of absence.
Riccardi came from Denver to report. Contributions to this report came from Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas.
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