Texas legislators on Wednesday approved a new state congressional map drawn at the behest of President Donald Trump to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked passage.
Republican legislators, who have dominated Texas politics for over two decades, have undertaken a rare mid-decade redistricting to help Trump improve their party’s odds of preserving its narrow U.S. House of Representatives majority amid political headwinds.
Legislators approved the new map in an 88-52 vote along party lines; under the body’s procedural rules, final passage of the bill will require another vote that was expected later Wednesday. The map, which will have to be reconciled with the state Senate’s version, has triggered a national redistricting war, with governors of both parties threatening to initiate similar efforts in other states. Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom is advancing an effort to redraw his state’s map to flip five Republican seats. Democratic-controlled California is the nation’s most populous state while Republican-led Texas is the second most populous. The Texas map would shift conservative voters into districts currently held by Democrats and combine some districts that Democrats hold.
Other Republican states — including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri — are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic states such as Maryland and Illinois.
Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years after the U.S. Census to account for population changes, and mid-decade redistricting has historically been unusual. Whenever the maps are drawn, in many states, lawmakers manipulate the lines to favor their party over the opposition, a practice known as gerrymandering.
Texas Democrats on Wednesday raised multiple objections to and questions about the measure.
Representative John Bucy, a Democrat, said from the House floor before passage of the bill that the new maps were clearly intended to dilute the voting power of Black, Latino and Asian voters, and that his Republican colleagues bending to the will of Trump was deeply worrying.