Texas Republicans were on course Wednesday to approve a contentious new electoral map pushed by President Donald Trump to eke out more seats and defend their razor-thin majority in the US House of Representatives, with the midterm elections looming.
The vote had been delayed by two weeks after Democratic legislators fled the state to halt the aggressive redistricting drive, which carves out five new Republican-friendly districts.
More than 50 Democrats walked out, stalling legislative business and generating national headlines as they sought to draw attention to the rare mid-decade redistricting push.
The rebels returned this week, but not before their protest had set off a national map-drawing war, with Trump pressuring his party's state-level officials to do everything they can to protect the House majority.
The stakes are sky-high for Trump, who will be bogged down in investigations into almost every aspect of his second term if Democrats manage to flip the handful of districts nationwide needed to win back the House in 2026 midterm elections.
As lawmakers in the Lone Star State debated the map, Democratic representative Chris Turner called it a "clear violation of the Voting Rights Act and the constitution," according to Austin-based news site The Texas Tribune.
Lawmakers sped up the normal legislative process, hoping to bring the new map to a final vote as early as Wednesday evening, with the outcome seen as something of a foregone conclusion in the Republican-led Texas legislature.
After the map gets a green light in the state's House, it moves to the Senate, where it has passed in a previous session, before heading to Republican Governor Greg Abbott's desk.
- Playing hardball -
Districts are usually redrawn every 10 years after the US census, and are supposed to be based on its findings, so that districts accurately represent the people who live there. But this is governed by convention, rather than by law.
"Redistricting can be done at any point in time," said the map's sponsor, Republican Todd Hunter, according to the Tribune. "The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance."
There is little Democrats in Texas can do to thwart the map, but it has prompted retaliation in California, and serious discussions in other Democratic states alarmed that the Texas maneuver could be replicated nationwide.
Republicans are mulling drawing at least 10 new seats and are targeting Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Indiana, South Carolina and Florida.
Trump on Monday posted the proposed map of Texas on his Truth Social platform, calling it "one of the most popular initiatives I have ever supported."
State lawmakers in Democratic stronghold California -- the largest and richest US state -- introduced three bills on Monday to create a voter referendum this year for a new congressional map that would effectively counteract Texas.
If approved in the state of 39 million residents, the referendum would appear on California's November 4 ballot.
"Nothing about this is normal, and so we're not going to act as if anything is normal any longer," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.
"Yes, we'll fight fire with fire. Yes, we will push back. It's not about whether we play hardball anymore, it's about how we play hardball."
New York Democrats may follow suit, with Governor Kathy Hochul calling the Texas redistricting plan nothing short of a "legal insurrection."
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