Texas Democrats return, enabling Republicans to advance redistricting plans
- Texas Republicans resumed redistricting efforts to draw new U.S. House maps, aiming for five additional GOP seats.
- Democrats, who recently completed a two-week quorum walkout, began returning to the state Capitol, thus allowing legislative progress.
- The redistricting battle illustrates the intense political maneuvers both parties are employing ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Texas faced a high-stakes redistricting battle as state Republicans resumed efforts to redraw congressional district maps. This follows a prolonged two-week walkout by Texas House Democrats, who left for blue states like Illinois to prevent a quorum required for legislative progress. Their departure was initiated after Gov. Greg Abbott, urged by former President Donald Trump, put redistricting on the agenda in response to a slim Republican majority in the U.S. House, aiming to secure five additional GOP-friendly seats for the upcoming 2026 elections. As Democrats began returning on Monday, the Texas House sought to reconvene a quorum, allowing the Republican-led legislature to restart the redistricting process. Democrats voiced their intent to fight the new congressional maps in court, claiming the proposals were racially biased, while simultaneously observing actions in California where Democrats were also pushing for redrawn district lines to counteract Texas Republicans' efforts, amplifying an ongoing partisan struggle over congressional representation. The unusual mid-decade redistricting effort, while typically following the U.S. Census, was now central to political strategies as both states navigated complex legislative maneuvers amid growing tensions surrounding the upcoming elections. The first special session that addressed the redistricting had ended, and Republicans were swiftly working to reinstate their influence amid a nationwide debate regarding the fairness and implications of gerrymandering.