Trump Pressures Texas GOP for Redistricting Advantage \ Newslooks \ Washington DC \ Mary Sidiqi \ Evening Edition \ President Trump is pressing Texas Republicans to redraw congressional maps, aiming to create five new GOP-friendly seats. The move could influence midterm elections and provoke similar action in other states. However, Democrats have limited options due to independent commissions and legal constraints.
Quick Looks
- Trump advocates for five new GOP-leaning districts in Texas
- Texas Legislature to discuss redistricting in special session
- Some GOP officials fear overreach could risk existing seats
- Democrats limited by independent commissions in key states
- California Gov. Newsom hints at response but faces legal roadblocks
- Legal battles in several states may reshape congressional maps
- Supreme Court decision on minority districting could have wide impact
- GOP aims to solidify House control ahead of 2026 midterms
Deep Look
President Donald Trump is pushing a bold and controversial political strategy: urging Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade in a move aimed at creating up to five additional GOP-leaning districts. This redistricting push is part of a larger national effort to ensure Republican dominance in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s intervention highlights his administration’s increasingly aggressive stance on securing long-term legislative control, using state legislatures as tactical instruments.
Speaking to reporters before departing the White House for a trip to Pittsburgh, President Trump emphasized the importance of Texas in the GOP’s map-redrawing campaign. “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five,” he said, referring to five new congressional seats the state could engineer in Republicans’ favor through targeted redistricting.
Earlier that day, President Trump had a private call with members of Texas’s Republican congressional delegation. According to a source familiar with the call, Trump instructed lawmakers that the Texas Legislature should move forward with a redistricting plan to add five winnable Republican seats. This was first reported by Punchbowl News, and it signals the White House’s deeper involvement in state-level political maneuvering.
Texas Republicans are preparing to consider this redistricting plan during a special legislative session beginning next week, convened by Republican Governor Greg Abbott. The official agenda for the session includes revising the current congressional map in response to constitutional issues flagged by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, behind the scenes, the driving motivation is clearly political.
While the effort is expected to strengthen Republican electoral power, some members of the GOP are expressing quiet concern. Redrawing districts too aggressively—an act sometimes referred to as “cracking and packing” voters—can backfire. By moving too many Democratic voters into already blue-leaning districts, Republicans risk making previously safe GOP districts more competitive.
“There comes the point where you slice the baloney too thin and it backfires,” warned Rick Hasen, a legal scholar and redistricting expert at UCLA. He noted that in 2011, a similar aggressive GOP strategy in Texas led to short-term gains, but ended up costing them seats in the 2018 midterms.
The 2021 redistricting maps, drawn after the decennial census, were designed to protect the GOP’s control rather than expand it. Currently, Texas sends 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats to the House, with one seat vacant pending a special election. A five-seat gain would leave Republicans holding 30 of Texas’s 38 congressional seats—a level of dominance far beyond their 56% share of the state’s 2024 presidential vote.
President Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting is highly unusual. While the Constitution requires redistricting after every ten-year census to ensure population balance, there is no federal rule prohibiting legislatures from redrawing lines more frequently. Courts have occasionally mandated mid-decade redistricting, but Trump’s call is the first time a sitting president has openly encouraged widespread voluntary changes to maps in the middle of the decade.
This strategy has drawn criticism from Democrats and voting rights groups, who argue it undermines democratic norms. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the president’s directive attempts to “undermine free and fair elections,” stating that “public servants should earn the votes of the people they hope to represent. What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to have politicians choose their voters.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that “two can play this game,” but Democrats in states like California are restricted by independent redistricting commissions. These bodies were established to prevent partisan gerrymandering, a move approved by voters in several blue states. In California’s case, Newsom has no direct power over mapmaking, though he has floated the idea of a ballot measure to repeal the commission system—an extraordinary and uncertain move.
As President Trump’s redistricting strategy gains momentum, it’s unclear whether Democrats can mount a meaningful counteroffensive. Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice explained that Democratic-controlled states like Colorado, Michigan, and Washington have locked in their maps through independent commissions, limiting any reciprocal actions.
Instead, Democrats are relying on the courts. Lawsuits are active in states such as Wisconsin, where a new liberal state supreme court majority could play a decisive role. In Florida and Utah, Democrats are contesting maps drawn to favor Republicans. While victories in these cases could alter the landscape before the 2026 elections, time is running short.
Further complicating the picture is a case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving Louisiana’s congressional districts. The outcome could reshape long-standing interpretations of the Voting Rights Act and reduce the requirement to preserve majority-minority districts. That decision, expected by summer 2026, could encourage even more aggressive partisan mapmaking across both parties.
Meanwhile, Ohio Republicans are preparing to redraw their own maps after years of court battles, seeking to expand their current 10-5 House advantage to as much as 13-2. But, like in Texas, the opportunity is not without risk. Overreaching could provoke a voter backlash, especially in suburban areas where demographic shifts have eroded once-solid GOP margins.
Texas Democrats, for their part, are sounding the alarm. Rep. Lloyd Doggett criticized the redistricting move as ill-timed and callous, noting that it was being prioritized even as Texas recovers from catastrophic floods that killed over 130 people.
“This scheme is an act of desperation,” Doggett said. “Instead of focusing on real problems, they’re trying to rig the political system to hold onto power.”
Still, Texas Republicans remain confident. State Rep. Brian Harrison, who served in the first Trump administration, emphasized that the Legislature could handle the redistricting process responsibly. “This is something we can do and should do,” he said. Senator John Cornyn added that Latino voters’ increasing support for Republicans offers real potential for gains under a new map.
But Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, sees it differently. She argues that new maps would inevitably create more competitive districts, not fewer. “This scheme to rig the maps is hardly going to shore up their majority. It is going to expand the battleground in the race for the majority,” she told reporters.
As President Trump pushes forward with his redistricting agenda, the national political map may be poised for a seismic shift—one that could define not only the 2026 elections but the very nature of electoral fairness for years to come.
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