Donald Trump told reporters he wants Texas to redraw its districts so the GOP can pick up five more seats — and said this could also be done in some other states as well. California Gov. Gavin Newsom then responded: two can play that game.
Will this start a new red and blue state battle to redraw districts? What isn’t a question is that Trump feels the GOP has a need to get more districts to win in 2026 and beyond.
President Donald Trump wants lawmakers in Texas to redraw the state’s congressional district map to give Republicans five more House seats, he told reporters Tuesday.
“There could be some other states we’re going to get another three, or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one.” he said. “Just a simple redrawing we pick up five seats.”
The White House and Department of Justice pushed for the redistricting, POLITICO reported Friday, and Gov. Greg Abbott asked state leaders to do it during a summer special session. The move is seen as an opportunity for Republicans to prevent Democrats from flipping the house back in 2026, but some see it as a dangerous risk.
Democrats currently control 12 of Texas’s 38 congressional districts. A 13th district anchored by downtown Houston is currently vacant but was controlled by Democrats until the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner last March.
Putting more Republican voters in Democratic districts would make those races more competitive, but it also removes those voters from their current Republican districts, diluting the GOP advantage. Those shifts could create the potential for Democrats to win more seats in Texas than they otherwise might.
Texas already has districts drawn like this for Republicans to steal seats (TX15 is De la Cruz) pic.twitter.com/y8wqLmFN34
— name but also a little joke (@bearsaremean) July 15, 2025
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.