![\"Redistricting\"](\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/TBB_2895_1-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A member of the Missouri House flips through proposed Congressional maps during redistricting debate on Jan. 18, 2022 (Tim Bommel\/Missouri House Communications).<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Fueled by President Donald Trump\u2019s aims to bolster the U.S. House\u2019s razor-thin GOP majority in the 2026 midterm elections, a\u00a0rare mid-decade redistricting fight<\/a> in Texas grew increasingly bitter in recent days and engulfed other states.<\/p>\n As Democratic legislators in the Lone Star State fled to block a new congressional map, a handful of both blue and red states eyed their own redistricting plans, lawsuits cropped up and members of Congress pledged bills to curb redistricting wars.<\/p>\n While Texas is the only state that has so far taken formal action to redraw its U.S. House lines, a full-blown arms race could be imminent.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown on the redistricting battle as the drama unfolds:<\/p>\n Republicans in Texas drew a new congressional map at the urging of Trump that could give the GOP five crucial new congressional seats in 2026.<\/p>\n Midterm elections typically lead to the loss of congressional seats for a president\u2019s party.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the GOP\u00a0currently holds<\/a> 219 seats in the House, while Democrats hold 212 spots, with four vacancies. That extremely narrow majority has created immense challenges for U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, as he tries to enact Trump\u2019s sweeping agenda and cater to the president\u2019s demands as well as factions in the GOP conference.<\/p>\n Though congressional districts are typically redrawn every decade following each U.S. Census, the move, particularly in Texas, is\u00a0not unprecedented<\/a> and is allowed.<\/p>\n Texas Republicans\u00a0unveiled a draft<\/a> of the new congressional map in late July, which looks to reshape and flip major metro areas\u2019 districts held by Democrats.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0The Texas Tribune<\/a>, the Department of Justice sent Texas\u2019 leaders a letter in early July that said four of its districts violate the U.S. Constitution. The proposed map would dismantle those districts, per the Tribune.<\/p>\n More than 50 of Texas\u2019 Democratic legislators left the state to try to block the legislature from adopting the new map, according to the Tribune.<\/p>\n This move has drawn the ire of\u00a0Texas Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>, who went so far as to\u00a0file a lawsuit<\/a> asking to remove the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, state Rep. Gene Wu, after Wu left the state.<\/p>\n Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also\u00a0said Tuesday<\/a> that he will pursue a court ruling that declares the seats vacant for the House Democrats who do not return by Friday.<\/p>\n Texas GOP U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has also\u00a0called on the FBI<\/a> \u201cto take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled the state.\u201d Trump on Tuesday, asked by a reporter if the FBI should \u201cget involved,\u201d said, \u201cWell, they may have to.\u201d<\/p>\n California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been among the most vocal Democratic governors in suggesting retaliating against Texas Republicans by redrawing his populous blue state\u2019s own lines before the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n State laws in California and other Democratic states make mid-decade redistricting tougher than it is in Texas.<\/p>\n While pro-democracy groups have praised California\u2019s nonpartisan commission as the \u201cgold standard\u201d of independent redistricting, Newsom has indicated he would ask state lawmakers to temporarily scrap it to join the arms race he says Trump started in Texas.<\/p>\n At a Monday press conference, Newsom justified his exploration of mid-decade redistricting in the Golden State by describing Trump\u2019s recent and historic record as anti-democratic.<\/p>\n \u201cThese folks don\u2019t play by the rules,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cIf they can\u2019t win playing the game with the existing set of rules, they\u2019ll change the rules. That\u2019s what Donald Trump has done \u2026 Here is someone who tried to break this country, tried to light democracy on fire on Jan. 6. He recognizes he\u2019s going to lose in the midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President JD Vance is slated to visit Indiana Thursday in an attempt to push redistricting, according to the\u00a0Indiana Capital Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Indiana GOP Gov. Mike Braun said that as of now, no commitments have been made, when asked about redistricting efforts in the Hoosier State, per the Capital Chronicle.<\/p>\n Leaders of large Democratic states, in addition to California, are considering their own redistricting in response to Texas.<\/p>\n New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in an\u00a0op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle<\/a> Tuesday that she would \u201cnot sit on the sidelines\u201d and watch \u201cRepublicans dismantle democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Texas is doing isn\u2019t a clever strategy, it\u2019s political arson \u2014 torching our democracy to cling to power,\u201d Hochul wrote. \u201cThe only viable recourse is to fight fire with fire.\u201d<\/p>\n Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker appeared alongside Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and a group of\u00a0exiled Texas Democratic lawmakers<\/a> at a news conference Tuesday. Pritzker said it was \u201cpossible\u201d the state would pursue redistricting,\u00a0according to the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other Democratic governors \u2014 even including Laura Kelly of ruby-red Kansas \u2014 raised the prospect during a Democratic Governors Association\u00a0meeting in Wisconsin last week<\/a> of pursuing mid-decade redistricting if Texas follows through.<\/p>\n Republican states are also considering jumping in the fray.<\/p>\n Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O\u2019Laughlin, a Republican, told a news radio station last week that it was\u00a0\u201clikely\u201d<\/a> lawmakers would convene in a special session to redraw district lines after\u00a0pressure from Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican who holds the most competitive of Nebraska\u2019s three U.S. House seats but plans to step down,\u00a0told the Nebraska Examiner<\/a> that Republicans in the state were having conversations about potential redistricting.<\/p>\n An arms race to shorten the cycle for redrawing congressional lines could come at a cost for efforts to overhaul the redistricting process.<\/p>\n Common Cause, a national pro-democracy group that advocates for election reforms including nonpartisan redistricting, urged Democrats not to respond to Texas.<\/p>\n A redistricting arms race would only result in \u201crigged elections across America,\u201d Emily Eby French, the policy director for Common Cause Texas,\u00a0said on a press call last week<\/a>. It was wrong for Republicans to put \u201ca thumb on the scale\u201d through redistricting, she said, but also wrong for Democrats to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real solution is for Democrats to help us lift the Republican thumb off of the Texas scale and every other scale in America until we reach free and fair elections for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, whose urging appeared to prompt Texas Republicans to action, has consistently pushed lawmakers in that state to reinforce the GOP advantage there.<\/p>\n Tuesday, he said on CNBC that Republicans were \u201centitled\u201d to five more House seats in Texas.<\/p>\n Martin, the DNC chair, responded in Illinois.<\/p>\n \u201cNo party is entitled to any district,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to go out and earn the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Martin advised Democrats in blue states to do the opposite by responding in kind to Texas Republicans.<\/p>\n In\u00a0an interview with States Newsroom last week<\/a>, Martin suggested Democratic states drop any commitment to nonpartisan redistricting in response to Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not here to tie one of our hands behind our back,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be the only party that\u2019s playing by the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n At least two GOP House lawmakers \u2014 representing blue states looking at retaliatory redistricting efforts against Trump \u2014 are taking it upon themselves to introduce bills in Congress that bar these initiatives.<\/p>\n GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California\u00a0introduced a bill<\/a> in the\u00a0House<\/a> this week that would ban mid-decade redistricting across the country.<\/p>\n Kiley said Newsom \u201cis trying to subvert the will of voters and do lasting damage to democracy in California,\u201d in a\u00a0statement<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, Congress has the ability to protect California voters using its authority under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will also stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.\u201d<\/p>\nHow did all of this interest in redistricting kick off?<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s going on in Texas?<\/h4>\n
How is California reacting?<\/h4>\n
What other states are looking at potentially redistricting?<\/h4>\n
\n\n ![\"Indiana](\"https:\/\/cdn.newsfromthestates.com\/2025-08\/braun.jpeg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>What downside do some see?<\/h4>\n
Are party leaders egging this on?<\/h4>\n
\n\n ![\"Democratic](\"https:\/\/cdn.newsfromthestates.com\/2025-08\/kenmartin_1.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>How is Congress reacting?<\/h4>\n