by In an effort to help Republicans retain control of the House in 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott called on lawmakers to alter the state’s congressional districts when they meet in a special session later this month.
In a legislative agenda that was made public on Wednesday, Mr. Abbott made the desire known. Additionally, he urged lawmakers to enhance the state’s preparedness and response to floods, such as the ones that devastated Texas Hill Country last week and claimed over 100 lives.
Texas has been pressured by President Trump’s campaign team to rework its maps in an effort to add more Republican seats. However, as The New York Times first reported last month, the notion has not been well embraced by the state’s existing congressional delegation.
There are now 38 seats in Texas, with 12 being held by Democrats, 25 by Republicans, and one vacancy in a district that leans heavily Democratic. Some of the Republican voters in the current congressional representatives’ districts would probably be moved to other districts.
Mr. Abbott’s proclamation cited constitutional concerns about the current lines that he claimed the Justice Department had brought up in support of his proposal to draw additional seats.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division and a former Trump campaign attorney, claimed in a letter to the governor on July 7 that four Texas districts had undergone unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.
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