Texas Republicans approve controversial Trump-backed congressional map

Al Jazeera

11 hours ago

Texas legislators have passed a new state congressional map drawn at the behest of United States President Donald Trump to flip five Democratic-held US House seats in next year's midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked passage.
On Wednesday evening, legislators in the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives gave initial approval to the map, though Democratic lawmakers noted during the session that the map was not made available during public hearings.
Texas Democrats on Wednesday raised multiple objections to and questions about the measure.
Representative John Bucy, a Democrat, said from the House floor before passage of the bill that the new maps were clearly intended to dilute the voting power of Black, Latino and Asian voters, and that his Republican colleagues' bending to the will of Trump was deeply worrying.
'This is not democracy, this is authoritarianism in real time,' Bucy said. 'This is Donald Trump's map. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows the voters are rejecting his agenda.'
Republicans argued the map was created to improve political performance and would increase majority-Hispanic districts.
The approval by the Texas House of Representatives came at the urging of President Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding on to the US House of Representatives in next year's election. The maps need to be approved by the state Senate and signed by Governor Greg Abbott before they become official.
Texas state legislative Democrats delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing the state earlier this month in protest, and were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session.
The walkout ended when Democrats voluntarily returned on Monday, saying they had accomplished their goals of blocking a vote during a first special legislative session and persuading Democrats in other states to take retaliatory steps.
The approval of the Texas maps is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature to approve its own new House map aimed at creating five Democratic-leaning districts. Unlike in Texas, the California map would require approval by voters in November before it becomes official.
The California Legislature is scheduled to vote Thursday morning on three measures – to establish new congressional districts, authorise the redrawn map to replace the existing one and declare a November special election to seek voters' approval.
Democrats have also pledged to sue to challenge the new Texas map and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month.
Other Republican states – including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri – are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic states such as Maryland and Illinois.
Nationally, Republicans captured the 435-seat US House in 2024 by only three seats. The party of the president historically loses House seats in the first midterm election, and Trump's approval ratings have sagged since he took office in January.