Late Friday, the Republican-controlled Texas state Senate approved the party’s new congressional maps, capping a legislative journey that involved major Democratic setbacks and triggered a national redistricting frenzy.
Following the voting, Governor Greg Abbott, a supporter of the plan who has received encouragement from President Donald Trump, will sign the maps, which were created to strengthen the Republican dominance in the US Congress.
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At first, Trump spearheaded efforts for Texas to redo its congressional layout, claiming his party should be granted five additional members from the state. The maps are meant to accomplish that: Texas will have 30 congressional districts that Trump won last autumn by a double-digit margin thanks to the redivision of congressional district borders in strategic cities and along the state’s border.
Currently, 25 of the 38 congressional districts in the state are under GOP control.
Since the beginning of the process, Republicans have been unyielding and direct in their assertion that their exercise is purely political and intended to increase their party’s authority in Washington, where the House is nearly evenly divided. In 2026, Democrats may take the majority with a net gain of only three seats.
Democrats said the new designs will harm minority representation in the state, a claim their Republican colleagues refuted, and accused Republicans of creating a risky precedent by not waiting until 2031 to redraw the borders as is normal.
The Senate has not been hampered by those attempts, in contrast to the state House, where operations came to a standstill earlier this month when dozens of Democrats left the state, preventing the body from having a quorum to proceed with legislation and requiring Abbott to call another special session.
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The focus now turns to California, where Democratic leaders have proposed redrawing their state’s congressional boundaries as political retaliation for Texas’ action, just as Abbott is about to sign the new maps into law. In contrast to Texas, where changing the maps only requires regular legislation, California Democrats’ plan also needs to be approved by voters in a special election this autumn.
