The Texas State Capitol on the day of a new session of the Texas House after Democratic lawmakers left the state to deny Republicans the opportunity to redraw the state’s 38 congressional districts, in Austin, Texas, U.S., August 11, 2025.
Sergio Flores | Reuters
A federal court in Texas on Tuesday blocked Texas from using a new congressional map intended to flip several Democratic-held U.S. House of Representatives seats to Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections, faulting Governor Greg Abbott for directing the legislature to draw it based on race.
The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel dealt a major blow to Texas Republicans who had been urged by President Donald Trump to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts to maximize the number of Republicans who could be elected in order to protect his party’s narrow U.S. House majority.
The move by Texas to create a new map, which could flip as many as five Democratic-held seats to Republicans, set off a nationwide partisan redistricting battle, playing out in both Republican-governed and Democratic-led states.
The El Paso-based judicial panel ruled in favor of civil rights groups that challenged the map, finding “substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered” it.
Gerrymandering involves redrawing electoral district boundaries to marginalize a certain set of voters and increase the influence of others. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 forbade federal courts from intervening in cases involving gerrymandering done for partisan advantage. Gerrymandering predominantly driven by race remains illegal.
Tuesday’s ruling found that Abbott directed state lawmakers, who were initially hesitant about redistricting, to redraw the map after he received a letter from Trump’s Justice Department.
The court said the letter made an “legally incorrect assertion” and threatened legal action against the state if the map was not redrawn to meet Justice Department recommendations. The court found that Texas lawmakers adopted racial objectives in drawing the map, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law and protection against racial discrimination in voting.
Democrats and civil rights groups in Texas had argued that the new map further diluted the voting power of racial minorities in violation of federal law. The NAACP civil rights group noted in a statement on Tuesday that “the state of Texas is only 40% white, but white voters control over 73% of the state’s congressional seats.”
Tuesday’s ruling criticized Abbott’s actions to meet the Trump administration’s demands, stating that “the Governor explicitly directed the Legislature to redistrict based on race.”
Abbott said in a statement that “any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd.” The governor said that Texas will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court ordered that the 2026 congressional elections be carried out under a previous map, approved by the legislature in 2021. Republicans control 25 of 38 U.S. House seats in Texas under that 2021 map.
Trump has demanded that Republican-led states redraw their congressional maps to help his party retain House control.
Tuesday’s ruling marked the latest setback in Trump’s push to tilt political maps. Indiana Republicans on Friday abandoned a legislative session that had been called to enact a new congressional map.
Democratic-governed California reacted to the Texas redistricting by initiating its own effort targeting five Republican-held districts in the state. California voters in November overwhelmingly approved a new map beneficial to Democrats. The Trump administration last week sued California to stop its new redistricting maps from taking effect.
Virginia has advanced a plan to redraw its political maps, meaning Democrats could find themselves ahead in the redistricting fight should the Texas court decision hold.
