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President Donald Trump and Republicans are moving full speed ahead in an extraordinary push to redraw congressional district maps ahead of next year’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin House majority.
And Democrats are trying to fight back against the Republicans’ controversial moves.
Texas GOP state lawmakers will unveil their proposed new congressional redistricting maps as early as Wednesday, a well-connected Republican source in the Lone Star State confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, the top Democrat in the House is expected to travel to Texas to meet Wednesday evening with Democrats in the state legislature at a meeting in Austin.
TEXAS DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS PREPARING TO FLEE RED STATE TO BLUNT GOP CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING PUSH
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has accused the Republicans of being “afraid of the voters in 2026 in the midterm elections and they’re trying to cheat to win.”
The Republican push in Texas is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to keep control of the House, and cushion losses elsewhere in the country, as the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats in midterm elections.
TEXAS GOV SAYS DEMS WHO ‘FLED’ STATE OVER ELECTIONS BILL WILL BE ARRESTED UPON RETURN
Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterms.
“Texas will be the biggest one,” the president told reporters recently, as he predicted the number of GOP-friendly seats that could be added through redistricting in the reliably red state. “Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.”
Democrats control just 12 of the state’s 38 congressional districts, with a blue-leaning seat vacant after the death in March of Rep. Sylvester Turner.
The GOP idea is to relocate Democratic voters from competitive seats into nearby GOP-leaning districts, and move Republican voters into neighboring districts the Democrats currently control.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans and Trump allies, said they needed to redistrict because of constitutional concerns raised by the Justice Department over a handful of minority-dominated districts.
COURT SIDETRACKS REDISTRICTING FIGHT IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE
But the move is potentially risky.
“There is some risk of making safe Republican seats more competitive, and I think that the incumbents are certainly worried about that,” veteran Texas-based Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser recently told Fox News. “If you talk to Republican members of Congress, they’re going to be worried about their own seats. They don’t want to be in a seat that’s more competitive.”
Steinhauser noted “that’s the tradeoff for Republicans, if you want to grow the majority.”
But he added that “the people drawing the maps… they don’t want to make any seat too competitive because that will defeat the purpose.”
Redistricting typically takes place at the start of each decade, based on the latest U.S. Census data. Mid-decade redistricting is uncommon—but not without precedent.
Democrats are slamming Trump and Texas Republicans for what they describe as a power grab, and vowing to take legal action to prevent any shift in the current congressional maps.
And Democrats in blue-dominated states are now trying to fight fire with fire.
“Two can play this game,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media recently.
The next day, after a meeting, Democrats in California’s congressional delegation said they were on board with an ambitious plan to try and gain at least five seats through redistricting. Democrats currently control 43 of the Golden State’s 52 congressional districts.
Jeffries, after his two-day stop in Texas, heads to California for meetings with state Democrats.
But it won’t be easy to enact the change, because in California, congressional maps are drawn by an independent commission that is not supposed to let partisanship influence their work.
Newsom has suggested that the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature move forward with a mid-decade redrawing of the maps, arguing that it might not be forbidden by the 17-year-old ballot initiative that created the independent commission.
The governor also proposed quickly holding a special election to repeal the commission ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Both plans are considered long shots, as they would face plenty of legislative, legal and financial hurdles.
Democrats in other heavily populated blue states—including New York, Illinois, and New Jersey, are also considering making changes to their maps, but have redistricting limits enshrined in their state constitutions.
Meanwhile, Ohio is required by law to redistrict this year, and a redrawing of the maps in the red-leaning state could provide the GOP with up to three more congressional seats.
And Republicans are also mulling mid-decade redistricting that might give the GOP a couple of more House seats in red states such as Florida, Missouri, and Indiana.
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