The Texas redistricting showdown is nearing the end of its first act, and what comes next is far from certain. But the battle is likely just the start of a national redistricting war.
The Lone Star State is leading the redistricting war
As Democracy Docket readers know, we’ve been warning anyone who will listen: with President Donald Trump in the White House, Americans are going to have to fight tooth and nail for free and fair elections in 2026. That might sound abstract, but we’re tracking signs of trouble across the country, from the GOP takeover of North Carolina’s election operations to red states eliminating grace periods for late-arriving ballots and the Georgia GOP appointing conspiracy theorists to local election boards.
But in the weeks since the White House asked Texas to redraw its congressional map to add more GOP seats in Congress – a possible violation of the Hatch Act – the Republican strategy to rig the 2026 election has become so brazenly obvious that it’s now top mainstream national news.
Texas Republicans quickly abandoned Gov. Greg Abbott’s original pretext for putting redistricting on the legislative agenda – he had cited a U.S. Department of Justice letter claiming four Democratic districts are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders – and they’ve switched to a different script, telling Texas Democrats, who are trapped in some kind of surreal Twilight Zone episode, that they decided to do unusual mid-decade redistricting for no reason other than because Abbott put it on the agenda. The Texas House redistricting committee chair admitted he hadn’t even looked at any Census data, in an astonishing mockery of a normal redistricting process.
Republicans have filed every conceivable legal challenge (and some inconceivable ones) to punish a group of Texas House Democrats who left the state Aug. 3 to block a vote on the map. They’ve issued civil arrest warrants, requested FBI assistance to return Democrats to the state, petitioned courts in Illinois and California to enforce the arrest warrants, filed two separate lawsuits to remove Democrats from office and declare their seats vacant, asked state law enforcement to investigate Democrats for bribery, accused Beto O’Rourke of bribery and threatened to jail him.
The Texas Senate passed the redistricting map this week. Unlike Texas House Democrats, Senate Democrats were unable to break quorum because of members who refused to participate. For now, it’s still unclear where this conflict is headed, but we’re updating you on every development. Read more about Texas here.
This isn’t just a Texas story. It’s a warning for democracy nationwide. Our readers have told us they want more facts, more clarity and more ways to take action.
What we do know for sure is that the redistricting chaos won’t stop with Texas. Democracy Docket reporter Jim Saksa put together a helpful guide to everything we’ve heard about blue states that could redistrict in response to Texas and red states facing pressure from the White House to redraw their maps, as well.
Republicans have defended their redistricting plan by arguing blue states are just as gerrymandered as Texas. (Jim’s story provides the numbers so you can decide for yourself, by the way.) Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, is using the same talking points. She warned in a weekend interview that “there will be consequences” for California and New York should they redistrict because they are already “gerrymandered to the hilt.”
As Jim wrote: “Democrats may be abandoning the moral high ground in the gerrymandering wars, but Republicans have long enjoyed control of the strategic high ground.”
Texas GOP redistricting plan courts Latino voters while cutting their growing political power
Democracy Docket reporter Yunior Rivas took a closer look this week at how Latino voters could be particularly impacted by Texas redistricting.
The GOP’s proposed congressional map targets districts represented by Latino Democrats – so even as Republicans are courting Latino voters symbolically, they’re cutting off their actual electoral power.
And Republicans are making no secret about their strategy.
“We have three Hispanic-predominated districts in South Texas that we believe we can carve out for Republican leadership,” State Rep. Mitch Little (R) admitted on CNN. “It’s good for our party. It’s good for our state. And we need to ensure that Donald Trump’s agenda continues to be enacted.”
The bottom line is, if Republicans enact their new map in Texas, the number of districts where Latino voters can effectively elect their preferred candidates is projected to shrink. Read more here.
NEW VIDEO
The Texas GOP Loves Their "Commander-in-Cheat" | Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer
Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer left Texas to deny Republicans a quorum and block their gerrymandered map. He sat down with Marc to discuss the threats to him and his colleagues, Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton's internal battle, and what’s next in the redistricting fight. Watch it on YouTube here.
What We’re Doing
When News Editor Sally Holtgrieve is not helping report on all of the above, she likes to go wander around nature to decompress. Frogs and newts have shown no signs of pond redistricting. Thus, Sally was thrilled to learn about the recent launch of Save Our Parks, an accountability initiative aimed at informing, exposing, and combating Trump and his cronies’ systematic dismantling of America’s national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and public lands.
Parks, a tip line AND Trump accountability? Hooray!
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