Texas Republicans propose new US House map with more winnable GOP seats

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans on Wednesday unveiled plans for a new U.S. House map that would deliver on President Donald Trump’s goal of creating more winnable GOP seats before the 2026 elections, pushing ahead with a fast and unusual summer redrawing that Democrats have few options to blunt.

The new map would create five new Republican-leaning seats that Trump is seeking as his party looks to bolster its chances of maintaining its slim House majority. Republicans hope to pass it during a special 30-day session of the GOP-dominated Legislature called by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott.

Most of the changes target Texas’ big cities, which are the few strongholds for Democrats in the booming state of more than 30 million residents.

Trump had urged Texas to help the GOP, and his team has signaled that efforts could expand to other states, with a similar push underway in Missouri.

“My understanding is that there is a path forward for a Republican to win five more of those seats,” said Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, chair of the Texas House’s redistricting committee, on the new maps.

A Democratic backlash

But the effort has spurred a push by Democrats in California and New York to consider redrawing their districts as well to counter the GOP efforts. Democrats in Texas also are considering walking out to prevent the GOP from passing new maps before the special session ends Aug. 19, though Abbott could simply call another one.

Republicans hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats, and the new map ups the total they could win to 30. Had the same lines been in place in 2024, Trump would have carried each of the 30 districts by at least 10 percentage points, leading to conservative optimism despite what’s likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on social media that “The 2026 election is being rigged.”

“California won’t sit back and watch that happen,” he posted on X.

Past efforts to squash partisan legislative action

Legislators in Texas and and other states have walked out of legislative sessions before, hoping to thwart the other party, with mixed results.

In 1979, a dozen liberal Democratic state senators in Texas who became known as the “Killer Bees” bunked down in a staffer’s garage and evaded Texas Rangers for four days, killing a plan to change the date of the state’s GOP presidential primary to favor former Gov. John Connally.

In 2003, when Texas Republicans also sought to redraw district lines in place for only one congressional election, Democrats fled to Oklahoma and New Mexico but failed to overturn the GOP plan. Republicans had taken full control of the Legislature in the 2002 elections for the first time since the 1870s, and their new congressional map allowed the GOP to pick up six seats in 2004, meaning they held 21 to the Democrats’ 11.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, whose seat would be drawn into a liberal district for Austin and San Antonio with fellow Democratic incumbent Lloyd Doggett, called the proposed changes “illegal voter suppression,” because his district would be merged with another Democratic-held seat.

“Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map,” Casar said in a statement.

Proposed changes in big cities and the Rio Grande Valley

The new seats come from making two Rio Grande Valley seats that have been narrowly won by Democrats recently slightly more Republican, collapsing the seats held by Casar and Doggett and turning two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones.

Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust overseeing GOP mapmaking, defended the proposal as beneficial for minority communities in Texas’ two largest cities. He said the new map would create two new Black-majority seats, one in Dallas and the other in the Houston area, and one new majority Hispanic one.

“If you go through it, you’re going to see that a lot of the communities that were broken up in the previous map were put together in this one,” he said.

What can New York and California do?

Trump has been pushing for redistricting in Texas with the explicit goal of making it easier for Republicans to defend their U.S. House majority. And Democrats are limited in their options for countering the GOP’s efforts.

In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has talked about redistricting, but an independent commission draws political boundaries.

In New York, Democrats introduced a proposal this week that would allow a new map ahead of schedule, but it would require amending the state constitution, a change that must pass the Legislature twice and be approved by voters. The soonest new lines could be in place would be 2028.

New York also has a nonpartisan commission that is supposed to come up with the state’s congressional lines, though Democrats have in the past overridden the commission’s map to draw districts that would be more favorable for their party.

Democratic state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who is sponsoring the proposal, acknowledged the 2026 shortcomings of his legislation but said “we can’t just sit there and watch” as Texas redraw its maps.

“There may be opportunities elsewhere but this is not a battle that’s going to be over in a year,” he said in a phone interview after Texas proposed its new map. “Unfortunately this is just a new front in the manipulation in our democracy to gain political advantage.”

During the first few days of Texas’ special session, Republicans faced scathing criticism from Democrats, who questioned the timing of redistricting efforts when lawmakers are supposed to be focused on providing relief following deadly Hill Country floods.

In GOP-led hearings, hundreds of residents testified and expressed their concerns about not yet being able to see the maps and what new districts could mean for Democratic voters. Vasut repeatedly denied the maps would harm voters.

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Cappelletti reported from Washington and Hanna, from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed.

Joey Cappelletti, John Hanna And Nadia Lathan, The Associated Press