As Texas Republicans plow ahead with a plan to redraw congressional maps ahead of schedule, many governors across the U.S. are increasingly grappling with an issue that they didn’t think they’d have to confront until the end of the decade.

The legislature is meeting in special session to draft plans that could give the party five more seats in Congress.

Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau or in response to a court ruling

One of the priorities during the 30-day special session of the Texas Legislature is a request by Governor Greg Abbott to redraw political boundaries in the state to benefit the Republican party.

Gov. Gavin Newsom says California should redraw its congressional maps ahead of 2026 to ‘put a stake in the heart’ of Trump’s Texas redistricting plan.

The Texas GOP knows the risk. In the 2010s, the Republican-controlled Legislature drew political lines that helped pad the GOP’s House majority. That lasted until 2018, when a backlash against Trump in his first term led Democrats to flip two seats in Texas that Republicans had thought safe.

Texas Republicans launched a high-risk, high-reward redrawing of the state's 38 congressional districts, a move championed by President Donald Trump to protect the party's narrow House majority in next year's midterm elections.

In a Washington Post column published on the 4th of July, one of the most famous Never Trump conservatives in the United States — 84-year-old George Will — argued that Texas' 2026 U.S. Senate race just might be in play for Democrats if State Attorney General Ken Paxton is the nominee.