The White House has been urging Texas Republicans to look into potentially redrawing the lines of their House districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections in an attempt to try and safeguard the GOP’s razor-thin House majority, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Still, some Texas Republicans have expressed concern that mid-decade redistricting, in an attempt to flip Democrat-held seats, could potentially endanger GOP House incumbents in 2026, according to the NYT. The report comes as the Republican Party is hoping to maintain control of both chambers of Congress in the upcoming midterms.
One anonymous source told the NYT that some Texas Republican lawmakers seemed uninterested in the prospect of redrawing their congressional districts during an “emergency” meeting on Monday in the Capitol. (RELATED: Why On-And-Off Voters Who Backed Trump May Be GOP’s Midterm Silver Bullet)
AUSTIN, TX – SEPTEMBER 20: The Texas State Capitol is seen on the first day of the 87th Legislature’s third special session on September 20, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images)
Republican Texas Rep. Pete Sessions told the NYT that GOP leaders are planning to meet again to “be on the same page” about the potential redistricting in Texas.
“We assured each other, you need to bone up,” Sessions told the outlet. “We need to have a conversation. We need to think about what those impacts would be on the entire delegation.”
Republicans currently hold an eight-seat majority in the House, including vacancies due to the recent deaths of three House Democrats.
“The only way you make the state more competitive congressionally is you do it at their expense,” Democratic Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer told the NYT. “I think the Republicans have already maximized their map, given the demographic changes in the state.”
The most recent redistricting in Texas was the regularly scheduled decennial reapportionment which occurred following the 2020 Census — with the new boundaries going into effect for the 2022 midterms. In March, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew a lawsuit alleging that this redistricting, carried out by the Republican-controlled state legislature, discriminated against black and Latino voters.
Mid-decade redistricting — the redrawing of Congressional lines outside of regular post-Census redistricting — is rare and often controversial. In 2003, a high-profile mid-decade redistricting effort succeeded in Texas, despite a failed effort by over 50 Democrats in the state legislature to stop a vote on the new map. These redistricted lines were significantly friendlier to Republicans than the previous map, and resulted in the GOP picking up five House seats in Texas alone during the 2004 election cycle.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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