Texas GOP Releases New Congressional Map Proposal

Texas Republicans unveiled a proposal for new congressional maps Wednesday as a redistricting battle heats up across the country.

The maps are expected to create five new House seats that President Trump won by double digits in November. Trump had pressed Lone Star State Republicans to redraw the lines to protect the party’s narrow 219-212 House majority in next year’s midterms.

State Rep. Todd Hunter (R) filed the proposal as Texas lawmakers met for a special session.

The maps could endanger Democrats’ efforts to take back the lower chamber next year. In response to the moves in Texas, Democrats in California and other blue states have floated their own redistricting possibilities, heating up a redistricting war ahead of the midterms.

“Just a simple redrawing. We pick up five seats,” Trump said of the plans earlier this month.

Analysis of the maps from Punchbowl News and The Texan project a potential five-seat gain from the new proposal, including a big shift to Rep. Greg Casar’s (D-Texas) 35th Congressional District near San Antonio and Austin.

Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, told The Hill in a statement that the draft congressional map gives Republicans five “real pickup opportunities” for the midterms “while also increasing the number of majority-minority districts, improving the map’s compactness, and reducing the number of split counties.”

Texas Democrats have responded to the proposal by accusing Republicans of “trying to rig the midterms.”

“By merging our Central Texas districts, Trump wants to commit yet another crime— this time, against Texas voters and against The Voting Rights Act,” Casar said on X.

The National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), the nonprofit affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called the proposed map “a racially discriminatory, brazen power grab.”

“It is an insult to all Texans, who have demonstrated overwhelming, bipartisan opposition to President Trump’s order to draw a mid-decade gerrymander,” said executive director Marina Jenkins in a statement.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Ken Martin said in a statement that the party will be “exploring all options” to fight back against the new maps.

“The newly introduced Texas maps are a blatant power grab by Texas Republicans, designed to further dilute minority representation in Texas,” Martin said in a statement.

The 2021 maps were already seen as supportive of Republican power in Texas, which Trump won by 14 points in November, but redistricting proponents reportedly think the GOP’s 25-13 congressional edge, which includes the late Rep. Sylvester Turner’s (D) current vacant seat, could expand by several seats with mid-decade redistricting.

But Democrats have argued that while shifting voters from solidly red districts to bluer ones could make Democratic-held seats more competitive, it could endanger some now-safe GOP seats.

Changes to the maps could also blunt challenges to the maps that Texas drew after the 2020 census, including a trial in El Paso in which voter advocates have alleged that the maps discriminate against some Black and Latino voters.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected meet with Democrats in Texas on Wednesday as Democrats weigh ways to fight back, according to Politico.