Texas Republicans on Tuesday released a proposed new congressional map that could oust as many as five Democrats from Congress—a desperate ploy by the GOP to rig the 2026 midterm elections to prevent the House from turning blue.
President Donald Trump demanded that Texas redraw their map to help Republicans gerrymander their way to victory, amid fears that voter backlash to his unpopular agenda would cause the GOP to lose its House majority. If Democrats were to retake the chamber, it would effectively end Trump’s legislative priorities and pave the way for congressional probes into his corrupt conduct.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has now heeded that demand. Earlier in July, he called for a special session for the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a new congressional map that would make districts so GOP heavy that Democrats have no chance at winning them.
Democrats have slammed Republicans’ overt effort to rig the midterms, and say they are working on plans to retaliate in kind.
“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,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California wrote in a post on X, referring to his idea to suspend California’s independent redistricting commission and redraw the maps in a way that squeezes out more Democratic seats.
Key players in the state say they support that effort, to avoid having to fight for control of Congress with one hand tied behind their backs.
“I stand by the work of the commission of course. We drew fair and competitive maps that fully abided by federal laws around the Voting Rights Act to ensure communities of color have an equal opportunity at the ballot box,” Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College and member of the state’s 2021 independent redistricting commission, told the Los Angeles Times. “That being said, especially when it comes to Congress, most certainly California playing fair puts Democrats at a disadvantage nationally.”
“I think it’s patriotic to fight against what appears to be our democracy falling into what appears to be authoritarian rule,” she added.
Democrats in New York are also weighing a bill to allow the state to redraw its map early. But NBC News reported that the redraw wouldn’t take effect until after the 2026 midterms.
Meanwhile, groups in Wisconsin have filed multiple lawsuits seeking to get the state’s current congressional map—in which Republicans control six of the state’s eight seats—tossed out. However, the state Supreme Court declined to hear two of those challenges.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which seeks to elect Democrats to the House, also said it anticipates lawsuits to block Texas’ map—if and when it’s passed by the Legislature.
“From the beginning of this broken process, Texas Republicans’ only objective has been to follow orders from DC party bosses desperate to try and save House Republicans’ teetering majority,” DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz said in a statement. “We’re still evaluating the proposed map. At first look, Texas Republicans appear to have made what is already one of the country’s most racially discriminatory maps even worse. Should this map become law, we anticipate Texas will get sued and the map will get struck down. Regardless, DCCC is ready to recruit aggressively to unseat every single newly vulnerable Republican who went along with this corrupt scheme.”
It’s unclear, however, if any of these efforts will work—or take place in time to counter Texas’ naked power-grab.
“Donald Trump knows he can’t win the midterm election fair and square. So he’s trying to rig the rules in Texas before an election even happens,” Rep. Greg Cesar, a Texas Democrat whose district would be redrawn by his state’s Republican majority, posted on social media Monday night. “But if Trump’s insane redistricting plan succeeds in Texas, no state in the country is safe.”