Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday directed lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map as part of a special session that kicks off later this month, as the GOP seeks to retain its narrow US House majority after next year’s midterm elections.
Abbott added redistricting to a packed agenda for the session, which includes measures to improve early warning systems for flooding and provide relief money to people affected by the devastating flooding over the July 4th weekend in central Texas.
The special session is slated to open July 21. Abbott has the sole authority to set its agenda.
Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win the House in the midterms, raising the stakes for Republicans and President Donald Trump, who could see a Democratic-controlled House block his legislative agenda and open new investigations of him in the second half of his final term.
It is rare for states to undertake a mid-decade redistricting without a court order to do so. But Texas is one of two states where Republicans are pushing to change congressional districts this year in the hopes of ousting several longtime Democratic lawmakers. Some Republicans are hoping new maps in Texas could result in the GOP picking up as many as five additional seats to shore up their chances of retaining the House majority.
The top Democrat in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on Wednesday criticized Abbott’s action.
“While Texans battle tragic and deadly flooding, Governor Abbott and House Republicans are plotting a mid-decade gerrymander,” Jeffries wrote on X. “They should be modernizing emergency response — not rigging maps.”
Republicans currently control 25 of the state’s 38 House seats. A new GOP map in Texas is likely to shift voters from safely Republican districts into ones held by Democrats. Targets for Republicans are expected to include Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent border communities that have shifted to the right in recent years.
A case now underway challenges Texas’ current congressional map, drawn in 2021, as improperly diluting the power of the state’s minority voters. The US Justice Department initially brought the case during the Biden administration, but Trump’s Justice Department dropped its claim. Litigation from groups representing minority residents and voting rights groups continues, however.
In Ohio, meanwhile, a requirement in state law is giving Republican state legislators another run at drawing new lines this year for the state’s 15 congressional districts. The GOP now controls 10 of those seats. The goal would be to knock off at least two Democratic members of the House, giving the GOP a 12-3 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
The mid-decade redrawing of Ohio’s congressional districts stems from a state law that requires maps approved without bipartisan support to be redrawn after four years.
Both the Ohio and Texas legislatures are controlled by Republicans.
Democrats recently lost an effort to add more seats in the battleground state of Wisconsin when the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court declined challenges to the state’s congressional boundaries. Republicans now control six of eight US House seats in Wisconsin.
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