The mid-decade redistricting trend began in the Lone Star State, when President Donald Trump pressured Republican lawmakers there to redraw its map to make it easier for Republicans to pick up five House seats in the 2026 midterms.
California, Missouri and other states soon followed. “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” wrote U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, according to The Texas Tribune. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
Racial gerrymandering is illegal under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a civil rights-era law that prohibits voting procedures and rules that discriminate against voters of color. California Republicans and Trump’s DOJ have challenged Proposition 50, alleging that it also constituted a racial gerrymander.
Texas’ redistricting was the impetus for California’s Prop. 50, which redrew the state’s map to flip up to five Republican-held seats toward Democrats until after the 2030 elections.
The case could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the ruling will have no impact on California’s newly redistricted map, said Paul Mitchell, the political cartographer who worked with Democratic lawmakers to draw it.
“No, this doesn’t undo #Prop50,” Mitchell posted on X. “The trigger language was removed in the legislative process as it was clear that TX was redistricting. So, even if their map is invalidated/postponed, the Prop 50 maps stay in place.”
The “trigger language” refers to the constitutional amendment that lawmakers voted to put before voters in August. It originally included a line saying Prop. 50’s map would only be operative if “Texas, Florida, or another state adopts a new congressional district map that takes effect after August 1, 2025 and before January 1, 2031” that is not required by a court. That language was struck from the final version.
Mitchell has previously waved off allegations that California’s new map is racially gerrymandered. He said Voting Rights Act guidelines were followed and noted the new map has 16 majority-Latino districts, the same number that existed previously.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who quickly organized a redistricting campaign over the summer to offset pickups by Texas, celebrated the ruling.
“Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” Newsom said in a statement. “This ruling is a win for Texas, and for every American who fights for free and fair elections.”
The judges ordered that Texas’ 2026 midterms proceed under the congressional map approved in 2021. Of the state’s 38 congressional seats, 25 are held by Republicans and 12 by Democrats. Two Democrats are set to compete for a vacant seat in a January runoff election.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, one of the Republican targets of California’s Prop. 50, told The Bee that the redistricting is “something that never should have happened” and “could very well end up coming out as a net loss for Republicans.”
“It shouldn’t matter which party comes out ahead or behind. It’s bad for the country. It’s bad for the representatives here,” Kiley said. “It’s time to say enough is enough and bring this whole thing to an end.”
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