Texas legislators have passed a new congressional map drawn at the behest of United States President Donald Trump, aiming to flip five Democratic-held US House seats in next year’s midterm elections.
The map was approved by the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives, despite objections from Democratic lawmakers.
Representative John Bucy, a Democrat, criticized the map, saying, “this is not democracy, this is authoritarianism in real time.
This is Donald Trump’s map. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows the voters are rejecting his agenda.”
The approval of the map came after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked passage.
The walkout was a protest against the Republican-backed map, which Democrats claim is designed to dilute the voting power of Black, Latino, and Asian voters. Republicans argued that the map was created to improve political performance and would increase majority-Hispanic districts.
The map needs to be approved by the state Senate and signed by Governor Greg Abbott before it becomes official. The approval of the Texas maps is likely to prompt California’s Democratic-controlled state Legislature to approve its own new House map aimed at creating five Democratic-leaning districts.
Unlike in Texas, the California map would require approval by voters in November before it becomes official.
The move is part of a broader effort by Republicans to redraw congressional maps in their favor. Other Republican states, including Ohio, Florida, Indiana, and Missouri, are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts.
Democrats have pledged to sue to challenge the new Texas map and complain that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month.
Nationally, Republicans captured the 435-seat US House in 2024 by only three seats. The party of the president historically loses House seats in the first midterm election, and Trump’s approval ratings have sagged since he took office in January.
The new map is seen as a crucial step in the Republicans’ efforts to maintain control of the House.