Texas Governor Greg Abbott is imminently expected to sign off on the state’s radically redrawn congressional map, igniting a national redistricting battle ahead of 2026 midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress at stake.
The Republican governor said he will “swiftly” sign the map into law after the GOP-dominated state legislature gave it a final, party-line vote in the early hours of Saturday.
The map, which sets the boundaries for each district that represents the state in the House of Representatives, was explicitly redrawn under President Donald Trump’s command to ensure Republican candidates will win up to five new seats — delivering a huge boost to preserve the GOP’s thin House majority.
In his closing statement in support of the map, Republican state Senator Phil King repeatedly warned that the GOP would lose the House majority without it, while insisting that the boundaries were not gerrymandered along racial lines.
Hours later, a lawsuit accused the state of pushing a racially discriminatory map that unconstitutionally diminished the voting strength of Black and Hispanic Texans and “dismantles” minority-led districts to keep Republicans in power.
“This map is legal in all respects,” King said.
“I’m convinced that if Texas does not take this action, there is an extreme risk that [the] Republican majority will be lost,” he added. “If it does, the next two years after the midterm, there will be nothing but inquisitions and impeachments and humiliation for our country.”
Texas Republicans advanced the map despite a group of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to break quorum in a long-shot bid to prevent the state legislature from doing any business during a 30-day special session requested by the governor.
Dozens of Texas Democrats declared victory last week after staying out of the state for more than two weeks, temporarily blocking Republicans’ Trump-led gerrymandering campaign while bringing national attention to the fight.
But a second special session was called, allowing Republican lawmakers to quickly take up another vote on the map.
Democrats’ return to the state allowed them to create the “legal record necessary to defeat this racist map in court, take our message to communities across the state and country, and inspire legislators across the country how to fight these undemocratic redistricting schemes in their own statehouses,” Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu said in a statement this week.
“Despite Democrats’ petty stunts, we delivered on our promise,” Abbot said Saturday. “This map reflects Texans’ actual voting preferences, and I look forward to signing it into law.”
The Texas fight quickly escalated across the country, with both GOP-led and Democratic states pursuing mid-decade changes to their congressional maps in a political arms race that could lead to explosive legal battles as voters prepare to cast their ballots next year.
On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers in California approved a new map that could swing five Republican-held seats to Democrats. Unlike the process for map changes in Texas, voters in California will have to approve the redistricting efforts in a referendum expected this November.
Robert Weiner — director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which represents the Texas NAACP in the ongoing lawsuit against Texas for racial gerrymandering — said the map is “illegal.”
“The architects of this racially discriminatory plan clearly targeted minority voters,” he added. “The legislators bulldozed important majority minority districts. It eliminates opportunities of Black and Brown people to elect their preferred candidates in multiple Congressional districts.”
A federal judge will hold a hearing on the challenge on August 27.
The League of Women Voters of the United States said the map is “designed to rig elections and silence voters.”
“Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans are abusing the redistricting process to bow down to an unpopular president who has no shame in thwarting the Constitution for his own benefit,” the group said in a statement Saturday.
“Texans deserve fair maps drawn to reflect their communities — not partisan lines manipulated to entrench power,” the statement said.
