(Texas Scorecard) – Republicans are urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to add congressional redistricting to a special legislative session this summer.
Redrawing the state’s congressional district maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections could help the GOP maintain a majority in the U.S. House and continue President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.
Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 U.S. House seats. Democrats hold 12 seats and are expected to keep a thirteenth when voters fill a vacancy in a November 4 special election.
In total, the Republican-Democrat split in the U.S. House is 220-212, with three vacant seats previously held by Democrats.
Redrawn maps could shift a handful of Texas congressional districts to favor Republicans.
Redistricting is required every 10 years to reflect population changes recorded by the decennial census, but it may also be done at other times.
A federal court ruling last year in a Galveston County redistricting case opened the door for Texas to revisit its election district maps, but state lawmakers chose not to take up the issue during their regular legislative session.
Now, the governor may instruct Texas lawmakers to consider redistricting during a special session.
Abbott has called for a special session beginning on July 21, but redistricting is not currently on the agenda.
The Trump administration backs the redistricting plan. Congressional Republicans met last month to discuss the proposal but are keeping quiet about details.
Meanwhile, several Texas Republicans are publicly backing redistricting.
State Rep. Mitch Little (R–Lewisville) said he thinks it’s a good idea, while acknowledging some politicians may be hesitant to lose a portion of their reliable electorate.
“We’ve got to do it,” said Little during a recent interview with WFAA.
“It’s not just for Texas. It’s for the United States of America, too,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of pressure from Washington to try to add these seats. It’s going to be a good thing for Republicans.”
The Republican Party of Texas has also endorsed the redistricting effort.
In June, members of the State Republican Executive Committee voted on a resolution urging Abbott to add redistricting to a special session agenda and “instruct Texas legislators to bolster our Congressional majority and further enable President Trump to pass needed legislation by redrawing Texas Congressional districts.”
The RPT previously approved a resolution calling on the Texas Legislature to revisit current election maps and redraw them to “more accurately reflect the political makeup, preferences, and priorities” of voters.
The resolution noted that current districts were drawn in a way that “likely constituted impermissible racial gerrymandering” in the wake of a 2024 federal appellate court ruling that the Voting Rights Act does not require majority-minority districts to be drawn for “coalitions” of minority groups.
“As a result, we have an opportunity to revisit these districts,” Dr. Robin Armstrong told Texas Scorecard in January.
Armstrong is the Republican National Committeeman for Texas and a member of the Galveston County Commissioners Court, where the game-changing redistricting case originated.
He said five Texas congressional districts are based on coalitions that almost always result in Democrat districts.
“We now have a right—in fact, we have a duty—to redistrict the seats,” Armstrong told RNC Committeewoman Debbie Georgatos during a December episode of her political podcast America Can We Talk.
Georgatos agrees with Armstrong and other Republicans calling for redistricting.
“It needs to happen,” she explained in a recent interview with Texas Scorecard. “If Democrats have the even slimmest majority in the U.S. House after the midterms, Trump’s America First agenda will be stalled.”
“Republicans need to fight like they understand what’s at stake,” said Georgatos.
She said if Abbott puts redistricting on a special session agenda for lawmakers, “I hope they will consider redrawing congressional lines and make them more consistent with the preferences of voters.”
“The courage of Republicans to redraw lines when permissible is vital,” added Georgatos. “Texas should be a leader in this. We need to send a message to DC that we want the America First agenda.”
In addition to the ruling that rejected coalition districts in Texas, a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision cleared the way for redistricting based on party affiliation—a decision relied on by Republicans in Galveston County and more recently in Tarrant County.
Texas is not the only state to consider mid-cycle redistricting as a way to bolster partisan political power in Congress.
In Wisconsin, where Republicans hold six of the state’s eight congressional seats, Democrats sued to force redistricting of congressional maps drawn by a Democrat governor, hoping to make two districts more competitive for Democrats in 2026.
Democrats’ efforts failed.
The liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a redistricting bid from the law firm of longtime Democrat attorney Marc Elias, which had claimed the maps violated the state constitution by following a “least change” approach.
Texas Democrats called Republicans’ proposed redistricting a “ruthless” attempt to “steal” seats but failed to mention Democrats’ similar efforts in Wisconsin.
Georgatos added that while the party in power typically loses U.S. House seats in midterm elections, she does not believe it’s a “foregone conclusion” and said Republicans should not concede but continue to stand for issues that matter to Americans.
“Americans don’t want what the Left wants,” she said.
Timing is a key factor in redrawing Texas congressional maps for 2026.
The candidate filing period for the 2026 Primary Election begins November 8 and ends December 8.
Before elections are held, counties that are split by new congressional districts must change their voting precinct boundaries to align with the new district lines, according to the Texas Redistricting website.
Federal law requires congressional districts to be as equal in population as practicable.
Congressional redistricting bills may be introduced by the House or Senate, and the maps must be approved by both chambers and the governor.
Abbott can add items to his July 21 special session agenda at any time before or during the session, which may last up to 30 days. He can also call additional special sessions.