Texas House Passes New Gerrymandered Map

Topline

Texas House lawmakers approved a new gerrymandered map Wednesday that would likely give Republicans five additional congressional seats, at President Donald Trump’s urging, overcoming a protest by Democrats and teeing up a battle with Democratic-led states to even the scales ahead of next year’s midterms.

American and Texas state flags flying on the dome of the Texas State Capitol building in Austin.

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Key Facts

The Texas House voted along party lines in an 88-52 vote to approve a new map drawn by Republicans to flip five Democrat-held districts, sending the bill to the GOP-controlled state Senate, where a vote is scheduled for Thursday, then on to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign the legislation into law.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the legislation into law once it clears the Senate.

The vote was delayed for more than two weeks after dozens of Democratic state legislators left Texas to prevent the House from reaching a quorum, though they began to return earlier this week.

Democrats who control the state legislature in California are expected to counter Texas Republicans by moving forward with a vote on a map that would add as many as five Democratic seats, but the map will have to be approved by voters in a special election to supersede the state’s independent redistricting commission.

Tangent

Texas Republican lawmakers forced Democrats who ended their protest and returned to the state to sign “permission slips” agreeing to police escorts in order to leave the House floor, which they said was a measure to prevent them from fleeing Texas again. Democratic Rep. Nicole Collier refused to sign the permission slip, however, and spent Monday night sleeping on the House floor. Several other Democrats joined her Tuesday night.

Crucial Quote

“Please pass this Map, ASAP. THANK YOU TEXAS—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote Monday evening on Truth Social. Trump told CNBC earlier this month Republicans were “entitled to five seats” in Texas given his 2024 election victory there.

Key Background

Texas Republicans openly said they were reworking the map for political reasons, with State Rep. Todd Hunter telling The New York Times the effort was to “improve political performance,” while some Democrats alleged it illegally discriminated against minorities by dividing and diminishing their votes. The move sparked a national battle between Republican- and Democratic-led states to gerrymander their maps and gain an advantage ahead of next year’s midterms. Republican state lawmakers in Indiana, Missouri and Florida have also said they’re considering retooling district lines to give the GOP an advantage next year, while Democrats in New York, New Jersey and Illinois have floated their own counter initiatives.