US EditionFederal court bars Texas from using new Republican-friendly US House map in midterms
A federal court found substantial evidence that Texas racially gerrymandered its 2025 map to create five additional Republican districts, blocking its use in the 2026 midterms.
- On Tuesday, a three-judge federal panel ruled Texas cannot use its new congressional map for the 2026 election and must instead use the lines passed in 2021 after a nearly two-week trial in El Paso, Texas.
- Republican lawmakers enacted the 2025 map earlier this year to bolster their narrow House majority, and the GOP-controlled Legislature approved it in August before Gov. Greg Abbott signed it, prompting lawsuits from civil-rights and advocacy groups representing Black and Hispanic voters.
- Court filings showed the 2025 map reduced majority‑minority congressional districts from 16 to 14 and eliminated five coalition districts, with five of six Democratic incumbents drawn into paired districts being Black or Hispanic during a nine‑day El Paso hearing earlier this month.
- The block came during the monthlong filing window for the March primary and before the Dec. 8 filing deadline, while judges signaled they may await U.S. Supreme Court rulings and expect a yearslong legal battle.
- Republicans hold 25 of Texas's 38 congressional seats and drew the map to gain five more, as Texas led a national redistricting push following President Donald Trump's call.
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189 Articles
The Lawton Constitution
DNyuz‘Played with fire, got burned’: GOP control of House at risk after court blocks Texas map
WASHINGTON — A federal court has blocked Texas from moving forward with a new congressional map hastily drawn in recent months to net Republicans up to five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.
In the struggle for the House of Representatives, the Republicans in Texas want to change the constituencies in their favor. This plan has now been stopped for the time being. A court found the new cut to be racistally motivated.
'Played with fire, got burned': GOP control of House at risk after court blocks Texas map
A federal court has blocked Texas from moving forward with a new congressional map hastily drawn in recent months to net Republicans up to five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year's midterm elections.
A federal judge blocks the use of a new electoral map in Texas, which gives Republicans an advantage in the face of elections.
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