BREAKING: Texas House passes redistricting plan creating 5 GOP-majority seats

The Texas House approved House Bill 4 on Wednesday, advancing a Republican-led redistricting proposal that could secure the party up to five additional US House seats, reports KHOU. The vote followed hours of sharp debate that centered on race, representation, and the legality of partisan gerrymandering.

“The goal of the new maps was to improve Republican political performance,” said Rep. Todd Hunter (R), who chaired the redistricting effort. Hunter argued the proposal complies with federal law and noted that it includes four districts in which Latino voters make up a majority.

 

The proposal, approved on an 88–52 vote, would reshape district lines in a way that could flip as many as five Democratic-held seats to the GOP.

The vote came after Democrats spent hours offering amendments to blunt the impact of the bill, a continuation of the tactics they have used throughout the redistricting fight, including fleeing the state earlier this year in a failed quorum break.

The Democrats who fled the state in order to block the redistricting vote returned to Austin after two weeks. 

The Texas House Democratic Caucus said in a statement that its members returned to work on Monday “to launch the next phase in their fight against the racist gerrymander that provoked a weeks-long standoff with Governor [Greg] Abbott and President Trump," per Politico. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump suggested that redistricting in Texas could yield as many as five seats for the GOP in the House come the 2026 midterm elections.

When Abbott called for a special session to vote on a measure to redraw congressional lines, many of the Democrat state lawmakers fled the state, meaning that there was not a "quorum" present in the state legislature and that voting could not move forward. Democratic governors have been threatening to redistrict their states in response, including in California as well as New York.

The bill now moves to the Texas Senate for approval. Democrats have said they will challenge the maps in court if they become law.

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