Texas approves middecade map to add up to five GOP seats

The Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a middecade congressional redistricting plan that Republican leaders say would create as many as five new GOP-leaning U.S. House districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The 88-52 party-line vote sends the proposal to the Republican-controlled state Senate, where final approval and the governor’s signature would make the map law. The measure has prompted immediate legal challenges and a swift counterattack from Democrats in California and elsewhere.

Republicans framed the effort as a legal, politically driven adjustment designed to reflect electoral performance and bolster the party’s chances in closely contested federal races. State Representative Todd Hunter, who sponsored the Texas bill, told colleagues the measure’s purpose was plain. "The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance," he said on the House floor. Former President Donald Trump publicly praised the move and urged other Republican-led states to follow Texas’s lead.

Democrats called the move an unprecedented, partisan power grab that would dilute the voting strength of minority communities and undermine...