A Texas House committee has advanced a new congressional map that is designed to increase the GOP majority ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The newly drawn map, which would create 30 Republican congressional seats compared to eight Democratic districts, passed the Texas House’s Redistricting Committee by a party line vote of 12-6 on Saturday, setting it up for a vote from the full state House next week.
The map now heads to the state Committee on Calendars for consideration, with a vote by the full House coming as early as next Tuesday.
The Saturday vote followed a 15-hour hearing on the proposed map, which included testimony from U.S. House Democrats from Texas and members of the public opposed to the redistricting effort.
Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) and Al Green (D-TX) both slammed the new map, with Crockett vowing a legal challenge if it passes.
Green in particular could stand to lose the most from the redistricting, which sees his 9th District include redder areas just outside downtown Houston. Other districts affected are those in the Austin and Dallas areas, the latter of which Crockett represents.
Texas state Republicans maintained before the vote that the redistricting will allow Republicans to compete in these urban areas, which lean heavily Democrat.
“We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance,” Republican state Rep. Todd Hunter said. “Political performance does not guarantee electoral success — that’s up to the candidates. But it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts.”
TEXAS REPUBLICANS’ REDISTRICTING PUSH GAMBLING ON LATINO VOTERS’ LOYALTY
But the effort has led to Democratic governors vowing to do the same in their states, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announcing a November special election for Californians to vote on redistricting in favor of Democrats.
Multiple Democratic governors also called for a response “in kind” to the Texas redistricting effort on Friday night.