Texas House passes GOP-led congressional redistricting bill

HOUSTON -- The Texas GOP-dominated House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a redistricting bill aimed at garnering five new congressional seats for Republicans in the US midterm elections next year.

The state House passed the redrawn congressional map by a vote of 88 to 52 along party lines.

The vote came after a two-week delay when more than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers stayed out of the state in protest against the rare mid-decade redistricting plan.

On Wednesday at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Democratic lawmakers introduced 12 amendments to the redistricting bill, but Republicans rejected all of them.

The state Senate, also controlled by Republicans, is expected to vote for the bill later this week and send the legislation to Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

If enacted, it would reshape districts across Texas, including pairing some residents of the Democratic-leaning capital of Austin in central Texas with voters nearly 300 miles away in the state's rural north.

The current congressional map in Texas was drawn in 2021, with Republicans having 25 seats out of Texas's 38.

Pushed by US President Donald Trump, Texas Republicans proposed new congressional lines in late July to divide up existing districts in Austin, Houston and Dallas in a bid to garner five more seats.

In response, California's Governor Gavin Newsom said last Thursday that the Democratic state would redraw the state's congressional districts mid-decade "to respond to what's happening in Texas."

His plan would allow one-time adjustments in 2026, 2028 and 2030, which could get Democrats five more US House seats to bolster their current 43-9 majority.

On Tuesday, Republican lawmakers in California filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court to stop Newsom's plan, citing legislative process wrongdoing.