President Trump’s unprecedented push to create more Republican House seats in Texas to maintain the GOP majority in 2026 has escalated into a cross-country fight.
Texas is at the center of GOP gerrymandering efforts after Trump convinced Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session to redraw the lines of the Lone Star State.
While some Texas Republicans were initially reluctant to add even two seats to their 25-13 House seat advantage, Trump persuaded Abbott that Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas.
The draft redistricting map all but erases three urban Democratic seats and forces two other incumbents in South Texas into more Republican terrain. Democrats argue that the highly unusual mid-decade redistricting amounts to cheating and a naked power grab.
Texas legislative Democrats used an old tactic —fleeing the state—thwarting a quorum and preventing Republicans from passing a new U.S. House map.
Partisan “gerrymandering” is an old story in our political system, first coined as a term in 1812. Both sides do it.
On Nov. 16, 2021, Nevada legislative Democrats approved, and then-Gov. Steve Sisolak signed onto gerrymandered state legislative and congressional district maps in a special legislative session lasting less than 96 hours.
The session was held over the Veterans Day holiday weekend when many people were unavailable. A classic tactic was employed: hearings timed to avoid full media scrutiny and public attention.
Democrats used gerrymandering to manipulate district boundaries against Republicans, diluted the voting power of specific demographic groups and divided communities of interest.
The adopted Nevada political maps got “F” grades for significant Democratic advantage from the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
While Trump won Nevada last year (50.6% to 47.5%), Democrats retained 3 of 4 House seats, despite receiving only 37.4% of the vote, far less than the 48.5% won by GOP candidates. The GOP vote total (692,314) exceeded the combined Democratic and Independent total (684,096).
Democrats won a commanding 27-15 majority in the Nevada Assembly in 2024. Notably, Republican Assembly candidates statewide outpolled Democrats, 684,381 to 632,411. GOP candidates received 52,000 more votes yet won only about 1/3 of Assembly seats.
In 2024, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed rulings that two proposed ballot questions each seeking to establish an independent redistricting commission were legally deficient because they didn’t establish a revenue source to pay for it, in Democrat-led lawsuits.
A 2020 ballot initiative attempting to change the redistricting process survived litigation but not COVID-19. It failed to gather enough signatures during the pandemic to make the ballot.
Democrats promise retaliation by redrawing their own House maps. Many fleeing Texas Democrats landed in Illinois where Gov. JB Pritzker pledged protection.
Illinois’s delegation has 14 Democrats to 3 Republicans. Pritzker says squeezing out that GOP trio “is on the table.” Illinois’s districts are already among the most gerrymandered in the country.
Gov. Gavin Newsom threatens Democratic redistricting in California. Newsom proposes Democrats redraw California’s maps for 2026, 2028 and 2030. Legislative Democrats must quickly approve and put this on a special election ballot in November (cost: $200 million).
Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor (2003-2011), pledges to go all out with past allies like the League of Women Voters to challenge Newsom’s actions.
Schwarzenegger championed California’s Propositions 11 (2008) and 20 (2010), which created an independent commission to draw state legislative and congressional maps, curbing overt partisan manipulation. Democrats hold a 43-9 House seat advantage and could adopt maps reducing Republican seats from 9 to 3.
New York’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul vows to retaliate but the chance of Empire State redistricting before November,2026 is slim. It also uses an independent commission to draw lines.
Trump is looking at other states as well, including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri, to squeeze out more seats before the midterms. In this escalating war, Republicans have a structural advantage.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
