AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate gave ultimate approval to a brand new, Republican-leaning congressional voting map early Saturday, sending it to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
President Donald Trump has pushed for the map to assist the GOP preserve its slim majority in Congress within the 2026 midterm elections. It has 5 new districts that might favor Republicans.
Abbott, a Republican, is anticipated to rapidly signal it into legislation, although Democrats have vowed to problem it in courtroom.
The trouble by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to carry a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts throughout the nation.
Democrats had ready for a ultimate present of resistance, with plans to push the Senate vote into the early morning hours in a last-ditch try to delay passage.
State Sen. Carol Alvarado, chief of the Senate Democratic caucus, introduced on social media that she deliberate to filibuster the invoice with a protracted speech and meant to talk for a number of hours. However simply when she anticipated to begin, the Senate broke for a protracted dinner break.
When members returned, Alvarado by no means had an opportunity to filibuster as a result of Republicans accused her of breaking Senate guidelines by trying to fundraise off the approaching filibuster.
Sen. Charles Perry stated it “appears to be potentially unlawful, at least unethical, using state resources for a campaign purpose.”
A spokesperson for Alvarado didn’t instantly reply to an e mail and telephone name from The Related Press.
“Shutting down a filibuster over a fundraising email is unprecedented,” Democratic Sen. Sarah Eckhardt stated in a submit on social media platform X. “It exposes the hypocrisy of Republicans, who will turn around and raise millions off stealing Texans’ votes while silencing their voices.”
The weekslong showdown has roiled the Texas Legislature, marked by a Democratic walkout and threats of arrest from Republicans. A lot of the drama unfolded within the Home, the place the map in the end handed Wednesday.
Democrats had already delayed the invoice’s passage throughout hours of debate, urgent Republican Sen. Phil King, the measure’s sponsor, on the proposal’s legality, with many alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ affect primarily based on race.
King vehemently denied that accusation, saying, “I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas.”
“There is extreme risk the Republican majority will be lost” within the Home if the map doesn’t go, King stated.
The showdown has additionally infected a broader, state-by-state redistricting battle, with governors from each events pledging to redraw congressional maps.
California Democrats permitted laws Thursday calling for a particular election in November for residents to vote on a redrawn congressional map designed to assist Democrats win 5 extra Home seats subsequent yr. Gov. Gavin Newsom rapidly signed it.
“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Newsom stated. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”
California’s map wants voter approval as a result of, not like in Texas, a nonpartisan fee usually attracts the map to keep away from the type of political battle that’s enjoying out.
On Friday, Abbott known as California’s redistricting “a joke” and asserted that Texas’ new map is constitutional however California’s could be overturned.
Battle for the Home waged through redistricting
On a nationwide degree, the partisan make-up of current districts places Democrats inside three seats of a majority. The incumbent president’s social gathering normally loses seats within the midterms.
The Texas redraw is already reshaping the 2026 race, with Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, saying Thursday that he won’t search reelection to his Austin-based seat if the brand new map takes impact. Underneath the proposed map, Doggett’s district would overlap with that of one other Democratic incumbent, Rep. Greg Casar.
The president has pushed different Republican-controlled states together with Indiana and Missouri, to additionally revise their maps so as to add extra winnable GOP seats. Ohio Republicans have been additionally already scheduled to revise their maps to make them extra partisan.
“Republicans are not finished in the United States,” Abbott stated.
Redistricting usually happens as soon as a decade, instantly after a census. Whereas some states have their very own limitations, there is no such thing as a nationwide obstacle to a state attempting to redraw districts in the course of the last decade.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom has stated the Structure doesn’t outlaw partisan gerrymandering, solely utilizing race to redraw district strains.
‘Fight fire with fire’
Extra Democratic-run states have fee techniques like California’s or different redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for instance, can’t draw new maps till 2028, and even then solely with voter approval.
Republicans and a few Democrats championed a 2008 poll measure that established California’s nonpartisan redistricting fee, together with a 2010 one which prolonged its function to drawing congressional maps.
Either side have proven concern over what the redistricting battle may result in.
California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority chief, stated Trump was “wrong” to push for brand new Republican seats elsewhere. However he warned that Newsom’s strategy, which the governor has dubbed “fight fire with fire,” is harmful.
“You move forward fighting fire with fire, and what happens?” Gallagher requested. “You burn it all down.”
Cappelletti reported from Washington and Golden from Seattle.
