The Texas Senate on Saturday approved new congressional maps drawn to help Republicans win as many as five more House seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The vote was the final legislative hurdle for the redistricting plan sought by President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott — one that ignited an intensifying, nationwide redistricting arms race.
California Democrats responded to the Texas effort on Thursday by approving their own new congressional maps, a Gov. Gavin Newsom-led bid to offset the GOP’s gains in Texas by handing Democrats five more favorable House districts.
Newsom’s plan faces another major hurdle. As California voters transferred the power to draw congressional maps from lawmakers to an independent commission in 2010, implementing the Democrats’ new maps will require a statewide election on November 4. Voters will be asked to approve a constitutional amendment to override the commission’s district lines.
The race to redraw congressional districts — typically a once-in-a-decade process following the US Census — is likely to expand in the coming weeks.
The White House is looking to Ohio, where a unique state law requires the legislature to approve new maps this year, as well as Missouri, Florida, Indiana and South Carolina, where Republicans are in full control of state governments, as opportunities to add more favorable districts.
Democratic governors in Illinois, Maryland and New York have also floated redrawing their maps to add more Democratic-leaning districts.
“Game on,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on X Wednesday after the Texas House passed its new maps.
Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, and state lawmakers aren’t being coy about why they are doing so now. Texas state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican who sponsored the new congressional map in the House, said during a floor debate Wednesday that he did so “to give Republicans an opportunity where they haven’t in the past.”
California state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat, said during a floor debate Thursday that Republicans “started this madness.”
“Republicans are trying to cheat to win congressional midterm elections under their unpopular president, and Democrats are fighting back. This is about trying to level the national playing field so we can have something close to fair elections for Congress in 2026,” Blakespear said.
Texas maps clear final legislative hurdle
The Texas Senate approval of the redistricting plan on Saturday is the final step for the new maps to be sent to Abbott’s desk to be signed into law. The new maps “should elect more Republicans to the US Congress, but I’m here to tell you, there are no guarantees,” said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Phil King.
The drama around the push largely seemed to enter its final chapter on Monday, when Democratic House members who had fled the state for 15 days to deny the House the special two-thirds quorum returned to Austin.
To prevent Democrats from leaving the state again that same day House Speaker Dustin Burrows locked the chamber doors and required the boycotting Democrats to sign permission slips agreeing to be escorted by a Department of Public Safety officer who would return them when the House reconvened Wednesday. State Rep. Nicole Collier refused and stayed on the House floor for two nights; more Democrats ripped up their permission slips and joined her for the second night.
Those Democrats vowed Wednesday night, minutes after the House’s 88-52 party-line vote, to wage a legal battle against the new congressional maps.
“This fight is far from over,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader. “Our best shot is in the courts.”
Some drama ensued in the state Senate, when final passage of the GOP redistricting legislation was threatened by a potential filibuster from Democratic State Sen. Carol Alvarado, known for her 15-hour filibuster of a restrictive voting law in 2021. But Senate Republicans blocked her effort, citing a fundraising email sent by her campaign earlier on Friday and accusing her of violating chamber rules.
Even before being signed into law, the new maps are already reshaping the midterm landscape. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who currently represents the 37th District, has said he will not seek reelection if the new maps are upheld in court. His retirement would avoid a potentially contentious primary against another Democratic congressman, Rep. Greg Casar, whose district would be redrawn to favor Republicans under the new maps.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are carrying out their threats to punish the Democrats who fled the state. They have notified some House Democrats they will have to pay fines and costs of more than $9,000 each.
One letter posted by state Rep. Venton Jones assessed a total of $9,354.25 due — including $7,000 in fines, following a rule imposing $500 daily fines for quorum-breakers imposed after a Democratic walkout in 2021, and $2,354.25 in costs. The costs were split between the lawmakers and totaled $124,943.40.
The letter was sent by state House Administration Committee Chair Rep. Charlie Geren. The Democrats are able to request a due process hearing to explain “why the full amount of fines and costs authorized by the rule should not be imposed” or submit a written request to the committee by August 25.
California voters have final say
Unlike the Texas redistricting bill, which required no constitutional amendment, the California effort moved in three parts. One bill is the constitutional amendment; another funds the November 4 election; and another includes the maps themselves. All three passed both chambers of the legislature on Thursday on largely party-line votes.
The California redistricting plan will only take effect if voters approve the amendment of the state’s constitution in that November election to temporarily replace the state’s independent redistricting commission’s House maps with new Democratic maps for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.
California Republicans have long acknowledged that their best chance of blocking the redistricting effort is by defeating it at the ballot box. A coalition of gerrymandering opponents and Republican leaders has already started to form to defeat the initiative, known as Proposition 50. State and national Democrats are also preparing to defend the initiative.
Newsom argued that California’s effort is “in stark contrast to what you’re seeing in Texas,” because voters must sign off before the new districts can take effect.
“I signed the first bill ever signed by a governor of any state in US history that will place in front of the voters maps for their determination. It’s the most democratic redistricting effort that has been advanced,” he said in a livestream with supporters Thursday.
The plan from California Democrats initially included a trigger to only take effect if another state engaged in mid-decade redistricting, but that provision was removed on Thursday, one day after the Texas House passed the GOP-drawn congressional maps.
“Because Texas Republicans have voted,” the trigger language “is no longer necessary,” Nick Miller, communications director for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, said in a statement.
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