Texas GOP launches special session to redraw Congressional district map

Texas Republican lawmakers are aiming to adjust congressional districts in the state in an attempt to create more GOP-majority districts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott called a special session that begins on Monday for this purpose.

State GOP lawmakers are poised to adjust state's congressional district maps aimed ahead of the midterm elections, per the Associated Press. As of now, Texas has 38 seats in the House of Representatives, with 25 held by the GOP and 12 belonging to Democratic lawmakers. One seat, however, is vacant after late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX) died in March. He was a former mayor of Houston.

The move from the Texas lawmakers comes after Trump said last week that "very simple redistricting" could get help the GOP get up to five more seats in Congress. “I think we’ll get five. And there could be some other states we’re going to get another three, or four or five in addition,” Trump said last week. “Texas would be the biggest one.”

Earlier this month, the Justice Department sent a letter to Abbott, which said that the boundaries on some of the Texas districts were racially gerrymandered, and Harmeet Dhillon, who is head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, pointed to the 9th, 18th, 29th and 33rd districts are "coalition" districts that need to be redrawn by Texas, per CBS News.

One district the lawmakers are looking to redraw is represented by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) in the Rio Grande Valley along the border with Mexico. Redistricting the congressional boundaries could bring more Republican voters into his district. However, the move could make the Republican districts next to Gonzales more competitive in an election, meaning they could be won be Republicans or Democrats.

Texas House Democrats have threatened a quorum break over the issue, meaning they would flee the state to prevent a vote. At least 50 Democrats of the 62 in the Texas state legislature would have to break quorum, according to the Texas Scorecard.

Splitting the district appears to be a high-risk and high reward scenario for the GOP, where they could win the GOP seats back in addition to the one currently held by Gonzalez, or the strategy could put the more solidly Republican seats in jeopardy. The GOP holds razor-thin majority in the House, and more seats would help grow that gap in the midterms.