Democrats consider options as they vow to push back on planned redistricting in special session

AUSTIN, Texas — In less than a week, state lawmakers will return to the state Capitol for the start of a special session, with redistricting as one of the big-ticket items on the agenda.

The Trump administration wants state lawmakers to redraw congressional maps to help shore up Republican seats in the midterms. That idea is drawing criticism from top Democratic leaders in Washington.

“Public servants should earn the votes of the people that they hope to represent,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said. “What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to have politicians choose their voters and undermine free and fair elections.”

President Donald Trump reportedly told Texas Republicans on a call Tuesday he wants them to find five new GOP seats in Texas. He later told reporters at the White House that Republicans could gain three to five more seats with a new Texas map. As Republicans plow ahead with those plans, Democrats on Capitol Hill are putting pressure on state House Democrats to find a way to stop it.

Jeffries vowed Democrats will push back aggressively, although Democrats in the state Legislature don’t have many tools to fight back and block the redistricting.

“All options will continue to be on the table as it relates to our efforts to push back legislatively and legally in Texas as it relates to this illegal, unconstitutional and egregious effort to rig the elections and gerrymander the maps in Texas,” he said.

On Tuesday, Democrats held a news conference where Jeffries accused Gov. Greg Abbott of “conspiring” with Trump and House Republicans to “try to rig the election and disenfranchise millions of voters.”

Abbott said Texas needs to address congressional redistricting “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn voiced support for the idea on Tuesday, noting Hispanic voters, who shifted toward Republicans in the most recent election, could help give Republicans more seats.

The last time Texas conducted mid-decade redistricting was in 2003, after Republicans captured the House, Senate and governor’s office – a move spearheaded by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

It comes as the Trump administration has pushed Texas to redraw its maps to carve out more Republican seats, shoring up the GOP’s advantage in the U.S. House, which they currently control 220-212. Republicans hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. Democrats hold 12 and are expected to pick up another vacant seat in a special election this November.

Last week, the Department of Justice sent a letter to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, expressing legal concerns about four districts in the Dallas and Houston areas, all of which are represented by Democrats.

The letter named TX-9, represented by U.S. Rep. Al Green; TX-18, previously held by Sylvester Turner before his death earlier this year; TX-29, represented by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia; and TX-33, represented by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey.

“The courts, ever since we’ve had a Voting Rights Act, have always found this state to be intentionally discriminatory. That is what they are going to do,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said. “I need people of color to understand that the scheme of the Republicans has consistently been to make sure that they mute our voices so that they can go ahead and have an oversized say in this.”

The DOJ said those districts constitute “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act.” In the letter, the DOJ states that TX-9 and TX-18 sort voters along racial lines to create two coalition seats, which creates a majority Hispanic district in TX-29.

“We only have four seats that are represented by Black folk, where the vast majority of the people that get to decide who they have represented them are Black. They decided to attack three of the four seats that we have in the state,” Crockett said. “They decided to go after a Latina. They are specifically deciding to splinter the communities of common interests, as well as just blatantly say we are going to dilute minority voices.”

Political maps must be redrawn once every decade after the U.S. Census is taken, although no federal law prohibits those maps from being redrawn mid-cycle. The Texas Constitution allows the maps to be redrawn at the discretion of the governor and the Legislature.

The 2021 state legislative and congressional maps have faced legal challenges, arguing they discriminate against some Black and Latino voters. The case went to trial in El Paso last month; however, a ruling is not expected for several months. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit argue that the special session call and DOJ letter contradict what the state has long maintained and argued that race was not a factor considered in drawing the boundaries of districts in 2021.

Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett spoke out against that redistricting push on Tuesday.

“We will rely on the Texas legislators to determine the best tactics to use to combat this plan,” Doggett said. “I won’t be asking them to protect my seat, nor should any member of this delegation. What we will be doing is asking them to protect democracy, because that’s what’s at stake. Whether we reach 250 years of American democracy, we will trade it for autocracy in the form of Donald Trump.”

Doggett and other Democrats said the special session should focus solely on the flood response. Search and rescue efforts continue as crews look for the dozens still missing from the July Fourth floods that devastated parts of the state. On Monday, Gov. Abbott said 131 people are dead after flooding across the state, and 97 are still missing.

“There is no doubt there were failures at every level of government — the county, the state of Texas, the federal government — and what the special session should be about is doing something to correct those failures,” Doggett said.

While the idea behind the new maps is to strengthen Republican seats and give Republicans a better chance of maintaining their slim majority in the U.S. House, some are concerned that it could jeopardize Republican lawmakers and put them at risk if they miscalculate with the new districts. Some Republican incumbents are nervous they could end up vulnerable. Diluting the voting power of communities of color could stretch GOP voters thin, turning safe districts into swing districts.

“For them to try to break up Democratic-held districts, they will have to weaken Republican districts who already are facing political headwinds,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who is also the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said. “This scheme to rig the maps is hardly going to shore up their majority. It’s going to expand the battleground in the race for the majority.”

If Texas redraws maps, leaders in California and other blue states are threatening to do the same to help Democrats. On social media on Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom replied to a post about the redistricting push, writing, “Two can play this game.”

There is chatter about Democrats potentially breaking quorum, something they did back in 2021 to delay a vote on an election reform bill. However, under new House rules adopted since that legislative session, House members who are absent without approval can face daily fines and other punishments.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed to use law enforcement to compel “the attendance of anyone who abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater.”

The special legislative session starts Monday and runs for 30 days.