Gerrymandering

Trump has prompted a redistricting race as he tries to maintain Republican control of the House in the 2026 elections. Democrats have fewer options to counter, as the battle heads into next year.

An approaching primary election was a factor in Thursday’s Supreme Court decision to set aside a lower court’s ruling that had blocked the Republican-backed map from taking effect. A key question moving forward is whether the lines were redrawn based on race or partisan politics.

The state's top Republicans swiftly praised the Supreme Court's decision to allow Texas to use its controversial congressional map for the 2026 midterms. The map was designed to give Republicans as many as five new seats in the U.S. House.

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Texas congressional map that may help the GOP win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms. A lower court found the map is likely unconstitutional.

The administrative ruling is a first step before the court decides whether to pause the use of the 2025 map, drawn to increase GOP seats in the U.S. House, for the rest of the legal battle.

The U.S. Supreme Court will now make a final decision on whether Texas can use its new congressional map, which was drawn this summer to benefit Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. The outcome could have a huge impact on which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives in the future.

The Republican party’s effort to gerrymander Texas to give them five additional seats in Congress took a blow this week when a federal court threw out their map. A federal judge said there was substantial evidence that the map was drawn to hurt minority voters. Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would appeal.

A federal court in El Paso had earlier Tuesday placed a temporary block on the map that Republican lawmakers passed this summer and ordered the state to use the district maps from the last two elections.

California voted to approve Prop 50, a measure to change election maps. Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose district will be impacted by the new map, has introduced legislation banning mid-decade gerrymandering.

A panel of three federal judges in El Paso are now hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging the controversial new map of Texas' congressional districts. The judges' decision will determine whether Texas can use the map in the 2026 midterm elections.