In a national partisan no-holds-barred debate over President Donald Trump’s desire to reshape United States House district maps to his advantage ahead of the midterm elections in 2026, Texas Democrats have ended a two-week walkout that stymied Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts.
In a statement released on Monday, Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu said, “We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation.”
In response to California Democrats’ retaliatory redrawing of their congressional boundaries, which places the nation’s two most populous states at the center of a growing battle for control of the US Congress ahead of the midterm elections in 2026, Texas Democrats are returning to the Republican-controlled Congress in the Lone Star State.
More than two weeks after their Republican-majority colleagues left the state, dozens of Texas House Democrats refused to allow their colleagues to vote on redrawn maps that would allow five more Texas Republicans to attend Capitol Hill. Democrats rallied against the Trump-led gerrymandering effort, and Republicans won after that first special session.
They specifically cited California’s release of proposed maps that would increase Democrats’ five-seat majority in the US House, effectively thwarting any Republican gains there.
Democratic governors in several statehouses have indicated they will follow California’s lead in the wake of Trump’s pressure on other Republican-run states to consider redistricting. A special referendum on the redrawn districts will be held on November 4th, according to Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The US president wants to reinvigorate Republicans’ shaky majority in the House and prevent another midterm defeat during his first term as president, when Democrats retake control of the House and use their majority to stymie his agenda and twice remove him from office.
Democrats are now within three seats of a majority because of the political makeup of the current district lines on a national level. Only a few districts in the 435 total US House seats are competitive. Which party gains control, therefore, even slight changes in a few states.
Redistricting was added to the agenda of the initial special session, which included a number of issues, most notably a package of bills that addressed the devastating floods that earlier this summer claimed the lives of more than 130 people. Texas Governor Greg Abbott jumped to his aid.
Abbott has attributed the delay in implementing those measures to Democrats’ absence. Democrats have argued that Abbott’s capitulation of Trump was due to his insistently effective linking the nonpartisan flood relief effort to the hyper-partisan issue.
Redistricting in the middle of a decade is unusual. This typically occurs once every decade to coincide with the US Census. Legislators are empowered to draw maps in many states, including Texas. California is one of the states that gives independent commissions the task.
Source: Aljazeera
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