Texas Plans Mid-Decade Redistricting After Pressure from White House

[douglas9]

The Texas Legislature will redraw its congressional maps beginning this summer, after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced he added mid-decade redistricting to the state’s upcoming special session agenda.

The legislature gaveled out for the year in June, but Abbott is reconvening lawmakers starting July 21 to tackle more than a dozen agenda items on his list.

The White House has been pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm election to protect the party’s slim majority in the House, the New York Times first reported last month.

Abbott cited “constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice” as the reason for revising the state’s congressional map. The department sent a letter to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday outlining its “concerns regarding the legality” of four Texas congressional districts and claiming they are “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”


https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/texas-plans-mid-decade-redistricting-after-pressure-from-white-house/


https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-announces-special-session-agenda-

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Republicans are trying to further gerrymander a state that already has districts that look like this:

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Texas Redistricting-As a voting rights volunteer, I was amused to learn a new term "dummymander"

I have been volunteering on voting rights/voter protection since 2004 when I went to Florida as part of the Kerry Edwards voter protection team. I have testified before committees of both the Texas House and Senate on gerrymandered districts. Part of my testimony was used in a prior lawsuit that unfortunately failed. Texas is heavily gerrymandered. My congressional district went from a R+1 to a R+21 as part of the last gerrymander. trump wants Ohio and Texas to re-gerrymander their districts to help in the midterms. I was amused to see that these efforts run a risk of failing

Republicans run a risky strategy for holding the House that rests on redrawn maps
www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

— David Darmofal (@daviddarmofal.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T18:40:41.292Z

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/11/texas-redistricting-00448145

But in Texas, Republicans are in danger of creating a so-called dummymander, whereby an attempt to draw more seats for one party accidentally benefits the other. Texas’ congressional map already heavily favors the GOP, so any changes to further benefit the party would have to walk a careful line. Adding Republican voters to blue districts to reduce Democrats’ margins means taking those same voters out of the red districts where they reside. The result is more competitive districts across the board — ones Democrats hope to take advantage of as they harness anti-Trump energy in the midterms.

“They are playing a little bit of roulette with these maps,” said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas). “In a wave election like what we have a potential opportunity for in ‘26 I think it makes these Republicans very vulnerable.”

Texas has 38 House seats, with 25 held by Republicans. Members of the state’s Democratic delegation huddled with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as the redistricting talk ramped up, with follow-up meetings planned.

Jeffries warned in a statement Wednesday that an aggressive map could “result in making several incumbent House Republicans vulnerable to fierce general election challenges.”

“Republicans are cutting off their nose to spite their face,” he added.....

Democrats are almost certain to sue over whatever new maps are created in both Ohio and Texas, said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

“I imagine we will have a lot to say about the map they create and the legalities of it,” he said Thursday.

On top of everything else, there is a trial going on with respect to the Texas maps that these efforts may affect.

This will be fun to watch