The Texas House of Representatives approved a new map for the state’s congressional districts on Wednesday, cementing a legislative win for Republicans that had been put on hold for weeks when Democratic legislators fled the state to block its passage.
The new map would give the GOP a chance to secure up to five additional seats in Congress in next year’s midterm elections. A final vote in the state Senate, which is expected to approve the plan, is needed before the it can be signed into law. Democrats say they intend to challenge the map in court.
Republicans first announced their intention to pursue redistricting outside of the usual 10-year cycle in June. But the fight over the plan didn’t become a national story until earlier this month, when dozens of Democrats left the state in order to prevent the House from having enough members present to formally meet.
Each absent Democrat was fined $500 a day during the roughly two weeks they were out of state. Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott also threatened to have them removed from their seats and civil warrants were issued for their arrests.
In the end, though, the Democrats opted to return home in order to “build a strong public legislative record for the upcoming legal battle” over the maps. They argue that the new district violates both the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.
Their walkout, which was never likely to prevent the maps from passing entirely, inspired Democrats in blue states across the country to rally behind their cause, pleading to pursue their own redistricting plans to offset the GOP’s gains in Texas. So far, only California has formally moved forward with that process. Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has called for a special election in November to ask voters to approve new district lines in the state.
Texas Democrats returned to the House for the first time on Monday, which allowed the chamber to meet briefly before adjourning with a plan to meet again on Wednesday to consider the maps.
At the end of Monday’s session, the House’s GOP leadership instituted a rule requiring all Democrats who had previously left the state to submit to police escort in order to be allowed to exit the Capitol. All but one, Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth, consented. Collier chose instead to remain in the House chamber.
She spent Tuesday night sleeping at her desk with her feet propped up on a rolling chair. Two of her colleagues, including House Minority Leader Gene Wu, joined her overnight protest Tuesday night. More Democrats did the same on Wednesday night.
The House reconvened on Wednesday morning for a lengthy — and at times heated — debate over the redistricting plan. Democrats proposed a variety of amendments to the proposal, including one that would have only allowed the maps to go into effect if the federal government agreed to release all files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“What we are doing today is unjust, it is un-Texan and it is un-American,” Democratic representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez said before the bill’s final passage.
The bill was eventually passed in an 88—52 party-line vote.
The issue now moves to the courts. The standards for what makes congressional maps legal or not can be complicated. The Supreme Court has ruled that gerrymandered maps drawn to give one party a political advantage are generally constitutional. However, district lines that deliberately weaken the voting power of a specific racial group are not. The fate of Texas’s new map will hinge on whether the courts view it as a racial gerrymander, as Democrats claim, rather than a purely partisan one.
Republicans are also looking at a number of other red states where they believe there may be opportunities to gain extra seats through redistricting, including Ohio, Missouri and Indiana. Democrats are doing the same in blue states outside of California, though their ability to put more favorable district lines in states like Illinois, Maryland and New York may be limited.
Read more: Texas redistricting fight goes national as GOP, Dems prepare for more battles over future House maps
The ultimate outcome of the redistricting battle, in Texas and nationwide, could play a major role in deciding which party has control of Congress after the 2026 midterms. Democrats only need to gain a small number of seats to get the majority in the House. If they do, they would effectively have veto power over any legislation Trump and the GOP want to pass. They would also have new oversight authority and the ability to launch investigations into the president’s most controversial moves since he returned to office.
