| By AP News Photos: YouTube Screenshots Texas Republicans are poised to redraw the state’s congressional map during a special session that starts Monday. It’s a move urged by President Donald Trump as a way to help the GOP retain control of the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections. The midcycle redrawing of political lines complicates Democrats’ plans to begin regaining power in Washington, and they have few avenues to push back. But the move also has risks for Republicans. Some Texas districts considered safe for conservatives will have to add more Democratic voters. Read more. |
| Why this matters: Texas has 38 seats in the House. Republicans now hold 25 and Democrats 12, with one seat vacant after Democrat Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, died in March. Redrawing thestate’s congressional maps this coming week to devise five new winnable seats for the GOP would help the party avoid losing House control in the 2026 elections. Mapmakers — in most states, it’s the party that controls the legislature — must adjust congressional and state legislative lines after every 10-year census to ensure that districts have about the same number of residents. That is a golden opportunity for one party to rig the map against the other, a tactic known as gerrymandering.But there is a term, too, for so aggressively redrawing a map that it puts that party’s own seats at risk: a “dummymander.” Democratic state lawmakers are talking about staying away from the Capitol during the special session of the Legislature to deny the Legislature the minimum number needed to convene. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton posted that any Democrats who did that should be arrested. |
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