Texas Republicans pitch new House map to net them up to five more seats

Texas Republicans rolled out a proposed overhaul of the Lone Star State’s congressional map Wednesday, aiming to flip as many as five Democrat-held House seats and potentially sparking a gerrymandering arms race between red and blue states.

Currently, Texas has 38 congressional districts, represented by 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats — with one vacancy, in the deep-blue 21st District, to be filled in a special election this November following the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner in March.

According to election analyst Dave Wasserman, the new map would have 30 Republican-favoring districts and eight Democrat-favoring districts, if adopted.

The proposed boundary changes, unveiled by GOP State Rep. Todd Hunter, mainly affect districts in South Texas, the cities of Austin and Dallas, and parts of Houston — putting the seats of Democratic Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, Henry Cuellar, Sylvia Garcia, Julie Johnson and Vicente Gonzalez at risk.

The new lines could also put incumbent Austin-area Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on a collision course with one another in 2026, while combining Houston Rep. Al Green’s 9th District with the vacant 18th District.

Most of the big pickup opportunities for Republicans would be in Hispanic-majority districts, including the ones held by Cuellar and Gonzalez in South Texas.

President Trump won Texas’ 40 electoral votes in 2024 with 56% of the vote, but the new map could see Republicans holding 79% of the state’s House seats.

Traditionally, new congressional maps are drawn after each edition of the census, with the latest round of redistricting for most states wrapping up in 2022. However, with Trump’s fervent support, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special session to redraw the congressional lines earlier than usual.

The Texas effort has spurred Democratic governors like Kathy Hochul in New York and Gavin Newsom in California to explore redrawing their state maps to boost the blue team and negate Republican gains.

“Donald Trump asks for 5 seats and Greg Abbott automatically bends the knee. The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen,” Newsom declared Wednesday on X.

However, many of the most populous Democratic states either have independent redistricting commissions or have already been gerrymandered so heavily that there are few additional safe districts they can carve out of the line-drawing process.

To become law, the proposed Texas congressional map needs to clear the state House and survive the all-but-certain legal challenges from Democrats.

Texas Democratic lawmakers have toyed with ways to prevent passage of the new map, including by fleeing the state to ensure that the legislature lacks a quorum.

The new Texas map is slated to get a committee hearing on Friday.

The legislature’s special session is scheduled to run through Aug. 19.