President Donald Trump, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaks to the media as he leaves the White House, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
"Texas will be the biggest one," the president told reporters earlier this week, as he predicted the number of GOP-friendly seats that could be added through redistricting in the Lone Star State. "Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats."
Hours earlier, Trump held a call with Texas' Republican congressional delegation and sources confirmed to Fox News that the president told the lawmakers that he was aiming to redraw the maps to create five new winnable seats.
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Democrats control just 12 of the state's 38 congressional districts, with a blue-leaning seat vacant after the death in March of Rep. Sylvester Turner.
The idea is to relocate Democratic voters from competitive seats into nearby GOP-leaning districts, and move Republican voters into neighboring districts the Democrats currently control.
The Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas. The GOP-controlled state legislature meets in special session next week, as top Republicans push to redraw the congressional maps. (Fox News - Paul Steinhauser)
"Democrats are going to push back aggressively because it’s the right thing to do," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters this week.
Democrats in blue-dominated states are now considering similar tactics.
"Two can play this game," California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media this week.
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The next day, after a meeting, Democrats in California's congressional delegation said they were on board with an ambitious plan to try and gain at least five seats through redistricting. Democrats currently control 43 of the Golden State's 52 congressional districts.
But it won't be easy to enact the change, because in California, congressional maps are drawn by an independent commission that is not supposed to let partisanship influence their work.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is floating a move to redraw the congressional maps in his blue state, to blunt a push by President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans to redistrict up to five House Democrats out of power in Texas. (Fox News - Paul Steinhauser)
Newsom this week suggested that the state's Democratic-controlled legislature move forward with a mid-decade redrawing of the maps, arguing that it might not be forbidden by the 17-year-old ballot initiative that created the independent commission.
The governor also proposed quickly holding a special election to repeal the commission ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Both plans are considered long shots, as they would face plenty of legislative, legal and financial hurdles.
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Democrats are also hoping to alter congressional maps in battleground Wisconsin, but the new liberal majority on the state Supreme Court recently declined to hear the case. Democrats and their allies are now in the midst of a second legal push for redistricting in Wisconsin.
Democrats have also filed redistricting litigation in Utah and Florida, which are both red states.
Meanwhile, Ohio is required by law to redistrict this year, and a redrawing of the maps in the red-leaning state could provide the GOP with up to three more congressional seats.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pushes-texas-republicans-redraw-congressional-maps-help-defend-gops-house-majority