Updated July 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM CDT
Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday released a proposed new redistricting map that seeks to fulfill President Trump's desire to add up to five additional Republican congressional seats in the state.
The shuffling of voters into new districts — in Texas and elsewhere — could play a key role in determining which party controls the U.S. House after next year's midterms. Currently, Republicans have a seven-seat advantage in the chamber, with four vacancies, and the president's party typically loses ground in midterm elections.
Earlier this month, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a Trump ally, added redistricting to the agenda for a special legislative session, citing concerns raised by Trump's Department of Justice that four existing, Democratic-leaning districts are unconstitutional.
But Republicans have also been explicit that they intended to undertake rare mid-decade redistricting for partisan aims, with the Republican Party of Texas saying that the effort is "an essential step to preserving GOP control in Congress" and advancing Trump's agenda.
Trump himself said a "very simple redrawing" would pick up five seats in Texas. Republicans are also eyeing additional pickups in states including Ohio and Missouri.
The proposed Texas map targets a number of districts currently held by Democrats, including two that stretch into the Rio Grande Valley in the south of the state and two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Another two Democratic incumbents in Central Texas may be forced to run against each other. Lines would also be revamped in the Houston area.
According to Dave Wasserman, an analyst with the Cook Political Report, the new map could help Republicans achieve a gerrymander of 30 GOP-won districts, versus eight for Democrats. Currently, Republicans hold 25 of the state's seats. Texas went for Trump by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024.
The proposed congressional map could be changed during the special session. It's unclear if Texas Republican lawmakers will release other maps.
Democrats face limited options to counter
Democrats on Wednesday blasted the Texas plan.
"From the beginning of this broken process, Texas Republicans' only objective has been to follow orders from DC party bosses desperate to try and save House Republicans' teetering majority," Julie Merz, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
The party has been plotting ways to fight back.
Texas Democratic state lawmakers are mulling fleeing the state, according to the Texas Tribune, which would deny Republicans a legislative quorum.
And if Texas Republicans enact a new map, House Majority PAC, which is aligned with congressional Democrats, recently announced "a plan to raise upwards of $20 million in order to recruit and support competitive Democratic candidates in districts across Texas."
Most notably, leaders of some Democratic-led states have discussed plans to do their own new gerrymanders — to "fight fire with fire," in the words of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
But there are legal and state constitutional hurdles in places like California and New York that would make the efforts more difficult.
Democrats and their allies would likely fight back in court as well.
"At first look, Texas Republicans appear to have made what is already one of the country's most racially discriminatory maps even worse," the DCCC's Merz added in the statement. "Should this map become law, we anticipate Texas will get sued and the map will get struck down."
Texas' current congressional map is already the subject of ongoing litigation centered on claims of racial discrimination.
Along with Texas, a number of states, including Alabama, North Carolina and Utah, are in the middle of legal fights over congressional maps. Many district lines could look different by the time voters get their midterm ballots next year.
With reporting by Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider.
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