The battle over redistricting escalates and spreads across the US
California’s bid to redraw its districts is the first concrete step in the escalating conflict, and states from both parties are looking at following its lead
The battle over redrawing congressional districts is spreading across the United States. On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he will move forward with a plan to approve a new congressional district map in the state, in response to an initiative launched in the Republican-led Texas in mid-July.
It was the first escalation to go beyond words in a confrontation between the two parties that has been heating up for a month. Beyond Texas and California, states from Florida to Missouri, and including New York and Indiana, are now starting to make moves in an unprecedented race to influence the 2026 midterm elections. In those elections, the entire House of Representatives is up for renewal, and the ruling party usually loses seats, so Republicans fear losing their slim majority — 219 to 212, with four vacancies — that they currently hold.
Redrawing the maps that determine which voters elect each district’s representatives to Congress — known as gerrymandering — is an established practice in U.S. politics, though it is usually done quietly at the designated times every decade, following the completion of the census.
This year, however, U.S. President Donald Trump’s open call for Texas Republican legislators to use a special session to pass a new district — which could give his party five more House seats if voters act as they did in the 2024 presidential election — has upended the usual conventions.
The battle has also elevated Newsom’s profile as Trump’s most prominent opponent. The governor has taken the gloves off, mimicking Trump’s style on social media with all-caps posts and superlatives; and at the press conference unveiling his strategy to redraw California’s congressional map, he openly endorsed the plan.
“We tried to raise the standards, but these guys are not playing by any set of rules, so this time requires us to act anew,” Newsom said in a combative speech, calling for a vote on November 4, when a majority of Californians will have to approve the redistricting, designed to give Democrats five additional seats in Congress.
Newsom’s announcement came just as Texas Democrats — who left the state two weeks ago to block the vote on the Texas redistricting — spoke to the press. According to Gene Wu, a spokesperson for the caucus, he and his fellow rebels are ready to return now that the issue has escalated nationwide.
“Now, as Democrats across the nation join our fight to cause these maps to fail their political purpose, we’re prepared to bring this battle back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts,” he said in a statement. However, their triumphalism may be short-lived, as the Texas districts are expected to pass once the state legislature votes, given the Republican Party has a majority in both chambers.
Other Republican efforts
As these legislative actions advance in Texas and now California, seeds are being sown for similar initiatives in other states. Republicans in Florida, led by Governor Ron DeSantis and the state House Speaker Daniel Pérez, are preparing to draft a new congressional map ahead of the 2026 elections. Florida has 28 congressional districts, 20 of which are held by Republicans, and with a different distribution they hope to increase their majority even further.
In Florida, the current path for passing new districts mid-decade dates back to 2022, when a district was approved that created a northern district giving electoral power to Black voters. DeSantis vetoed it and requested it be redrawn. The state legislature eliminated the Black-majority district and spread its population across several districts.
Last month, the Florida Supreme Court upheld this decision. In its ruling, the court said it was unconstitutional to create a district based solely on residents’ race. The justices suggested that preserving a Black-access district could violate the U.S. Constitution’s racial neutrality, potentially dismantling a key part of the Fair Districts rules. Encouraged by this judicial victory, DeSantis openly advocated for a redistricting plan at the end of last month, arguing that Florida had experienced significant population changes and that the last census was “flawed.”
Legislators are expected to consider the new district lines during the 2026 legislative session, beginning in January. The schedule will be tight ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, as election authorities need the new districts before the candidate registration period mid-year.
In Missouri, responding to the president’s request, the Republican majority is preparing a special session to redraw its district maps. Although Republican Governor Mike Kehoe has not officially announced a special session, the state House Republican majority leader, Alex Riley, told AP that it is “pretty likely” to happen and added that he has discussed it with the White House. Republicans hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats, but the party is targeting a Democratic-controlled district in Kansas City to gain another seat.
Ohio is another state on the list of potential redistricting. There, a law already requires new maps to be submitted before the 2026 elections, so the Republican Party is expected to try to design the state congressional map in a way that increases its current majority of 10 out of Ohio’s 15 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Indiana has also indicated it may consider redrawing its districts. Vice President J.D. Vance said he spoke with Republican Governor Mike Braun last week, though both politicians remained silent about the conversation. Braun, who would need to call a special session to map out new districts, has said he hopes to hold a “broad conversation” with legislative leaders on the measure’s constitutionality and emphasized that no commitments have been made. Republicans have fewer opportunities to gain an additional seat in Indiana, as their current congressional delegation already outnumbers Democrats 7 to 2.
Democrats seek countermeasures
As for Democrats, in addition to California, New York, Wisconsin, and Maryland have discussed pursuing their own mid-decade redistricting plans. In New York, state Democrats introduced legislation to allow redistricting in the middle of the decade. However, the earliest new maps could be ready is for the 2028 elections, because the proposal would require a state constitutional amendment, a change needing approval from both the legislature and voters twice.
In Wisconsin, the chosen route to force the creation of new congressional district boundaries has been judicial. While Republicans control the state legislature, two lawsuits were filed in the state’s progressive-majority Supreme Court challenging the current maps.
There are also rumors that other states will follow suit, though in many cases — especially sparsely populated areas — the chances of influencing the balance and gaining a seat are slim. Similarly, even where redistricting efforts succeed, there is no guarantee they will achieve the ultimate goal of winning more representation.
Redrawing maps now means relying on data from the 2020 census, which is already outdated. The changes could even produce a “dummymander” — a plan intended to favor one party but which ends up benefiting the other in practice. For this reason, although this confrontation has many rounds ahead, the eventual winner will only be known after the 2026 midterm elections.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition