Blitz Bureau
THE escalating political fight over the Texas congressional map is spreading across other states across the country, triggering an unprecedented middecade redistricting arms race with the balance of power in Washington at stake.
At President Donald Trump’s urging, Texas Republicans have proposed new congressional districts aimed at flipping five Democrat-held U.S. House seats in next year’s midterm elections, further skewing what is already considered a deeply partisan map in that state.
In response, Democratic governors elsewhere – most notably Gavin Newsom of California, the only state with more congressional districts than Texas – have threatened to retaliate by mounting their own redistricting efforts. “Donald Trump is a cheater, and so is Governor Greg Abbott,” J B Pritzker, the Democratic Governor of Illinois, told reporters on August 5.
Standing alongside him were several of the Democratic lawmakers from Texas who fled their home state to deny Republicans a quorum and prevent a vote on the proposed new map.
“As far as I’m concerned, everything is on the table,” Pritzker said. Democrats need to flip only three Republican-held seats to retake the majority in the 435-seat House next year, so even modest gains for either party via redistricting could prove decisive. If Democrats win the House, they could stymie much of Trump’s legislative agenda and pursue multiple investigations into his administration.
The practice of partisan gerrymandering – manipulating district lines to benefit one party over another – has a long tradition in the United States, but the advent of powerful software and sophisticated voter data has allowed mapmakers to drill down to individual streets and neighborhoods.
Other Republican-controlled states that could in theory use redistricting to target Democrats include Kansas, Kentucky and New Hampshire. Ohio Republicans will draw a new map ahead of the November 2026 election that could flip at least two Democratic seats. In Missouri, where Democrats hold two of the state’s seven seats, some Republican lawmakers have had preliminary conversations about a new map.
