{"id":264158,"date":"2026-04-24T09:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/264158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:41:17","slug":"virginia-pulls-democrats-even-in-texas-ignited-redistricting-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/264158\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia pulls Democrats even in Texas-ignited redistricting war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Last summer, Texas Republicans kicked off a nationwide redistricting war when they followed President Donald Trump\u2019s request to redraw the state\u2019s congressional map mid-cycle to deliver five additional seats to the House GOP.<\/p>\n

The effort appears to have yielded a stalemate, at best, for national Republicans.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 unusual move unearthed a wave of resistance from blue-state Democrats, who were initially thought to be handicapped from retaliation by independent redistricting commissions. Instead, voters in California and Virginia decided to temporarily suspend their commissions via ballot referendum in favor of new maps drawn to yield Democrats up to a combined nine seats. <\/p>\n

In deep-blue California, the successful \u201cYes\u201d campaign romped to victory<\/a> in November, replacing the state\u2019s map, which currently has 43 Democratic-held districts and nine Republican seats, with a new configuration in which Democrats are favored to win 48. And in light-blue Virginia, where Democrats hold a 6-5 advantage in the state\u2019s congressional map, voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a new map where Democrats are favored in 10 of the state\u2019s 11 districts.<\/p>\n

The results of Virginia\u2019s referendum were temporarily blocked by a judge, but that decision will be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. And an expected redraw from Florida could change the redistricting math again. But the end result could be a net advantage for Democrats, depending on how the fall elections play out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Trump really screwed them up,\u201d said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, whose seat was redrawn to more heavily favor Republicans. <\/p>\n

The majority of the Texas Republican delegation was privately skeptical<\/a> of the redistricting effort when it was first proposed last summer, with some frustrated over a lack of input.<\/p>\n

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, noted this week that the effort reshaped the seats of numerous members and forced them into retirement \u2014 both consequences that are \u201cnot oriented to continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that that change, just like it would be in Indiana or wherever you are from, it changes up the mix of members,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cWhat has happened as a result of this is, I think, an unforeseen desire by others to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Texas lawmakers passed the new map in August, Republicans rejoiced and defended the merits of partisan redistricting done outside the usual once-a-decade timeline. But on Wednesday morning, it was Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his caucus who were triumphant, and Republicans grumbling about the unfairness of a mid-decade redraw.<\/p>\n

Jeffries told<\/a> Punchbowl News he warned Republican Speaker Mike Johnson in July, as Republicans were proceeding with the Texas redraw, that he was pursuing a treacherous path. And in a statement, he said Democrats were committed to \u201cmaximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLast July, Donald Trump demanded that Texas draw five new Republican seats in the middle of a decade, igniting a chain reaction of corrupt MAGA state legislators attempting to rig the midterm elections,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cWhile many expected Democrats to roll over and play dead, we did the opposite. Democrats did not step back. We fought back. When they go low, we hit back hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, demurred when asked by reporters whether the redistricting war had been worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for me to decide that,\u201d Hudson said<\/a>. \u201cWasn\u2019t my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if they had any second thoughts, most Texas Republicans stood by their state\u2019s decision and trained their ire on Virginia. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Virginia now is going to have one red seat in all of Virginia just goes to show you that\u2019s kind of ridiculous,\u201d said Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do that. We just made it more equitable in terms of what the actual demographic representation is, from a political standpoint, in Texas.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hunt also noted that Texas is expected to gain seats in Congress after the 2030 census due to population growth, while several blue seats are projected to lose seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was \u2014 I guess we\u2019d call it retribution \u2014 but we got ours,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cAnd we have to continue to work more, and work toward having the majority. But I don\u2019t think this is going to hurt us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, said Texas\u2019 mid-decade redistricting effort was different from Virginia\u2019s, because Virginia\u2019s map was more extreme. And he disagreed with the idea that the two redraws could be equated.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas, we don\u2019t have that \u2014 I mean come on,\u201d Nehls said. \u201cWe have more of a majority there, but it\u2019s not like \u2014 there\u2019s nobody like Virginia. They\u2019re out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Austin, and August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, both pointed the finger at Democratic states that have little to no Republican representation, especially in New England, saying that Texas\u2019 mid-decade redistricting was done to reach equilibrium with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a single Republican in all of New England,\u201d Pfluger said. \u201cPresident Trump won 45% in many of the states in New England, and you\u2019re telling me that this is retaliation. They started this whole thing, and have been doing this for years. It\u2019s really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some states were forced by the courts to redo their maps enacted after the 2020 Census, Texas was the first state to take up a redraw mid-cycle without a court order. California\u2019s and Virginia\u2019s new maps will expire in 2030 and their temporarily suspended redistricting commissions will return in time for the next round of census-mandated redraws. <\/p>\n

Democrats in those blue states have been unequivocal in stating that their new maps were drawn specifically to counteract Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump and his power grab to try to maintain unchecked control of the Congress is why we\u2019re here right now,\u201d said Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, one of the Democrats who pushed for the referendum. \u201cAnd when the Texas delegation got to Boston [for a legislative summit during their quorum break], and we found out what was going on \u2014 hell yeah, we\u2019re in this fight. And we\u2019re going to help them win it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Republicans held out hope that Virginia courts would overturn the map \u2014 the same tack Texas Democrats took once their state\u2019s map was passed into law. And others said they would reserve judgment until after Election Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know yet,\u201d said Rep. Keith Self, R-Plano, when asked if Texas redistricting was still worth it. \u201cThe proof is in the pudding in November. It\u2019s an impossible question to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for whether Republicans foresaw the potential for retaliation when they passed their map last summer, Sessions said, \u201cI think it was seen that we were starting something that maybe we don\u2019t know the end of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Babin, R-Woodville, said he didn\u2019t bring up those concerns. But Roy said he wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a part of the conversation from the beginning,\u201d Roy said when asked if anybody had raised the prospect of blue-state retaliation. \u201cIt\u2019s like, if you\u2019re going to start this, then each state is going to be doing whatever they\u2019re going to do. But that\u2019s the way it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Blair, a former White House deputy chief of staff who now runs Trump\u2019s political operation, argued the redistricting war was started by Democrats suing over Republican-drawn maps in other states. But he conceded that, if he had known judges in California and Virginia \u201cwould just let them break the law, maybe we would have a different consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the nine new seats Democrats expect to win in California and Virginia, a court-ordered redraw in Utah facilitated the creation of a new blue-leaning seat in Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n

Outside Texas, meanwhile, Republican legislatures redrew maps to pick up one seat each in Missouri and North Carolina. A court-ordered redraw in Ohio led to a bargain between the parties there that gave Republicans an advantage in 12 seats rather than the current 10, though the two seats that were made redder are still considered winnable for their Democratic incumbents.<\/p>\n

But Republicans in Indiana resisted a push from the White House to redraw the state\u2019s 7-2 map, voting down a proposal in the state Senate. And Republican legislatures in Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire did not take up mid-decade redistricting despite overtures from Trump\u2019s political team.<\/p>\n

And the GOP\u2019s five-seat pickup in Texas is far from guaranteed. Trump would have won three of the new districts \u2014 all majority-Hispanic \u2014 by a 10-point margin, giving Democrats hope that Hispanic voter shifts and a history of overperformance by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Gonzalez can keep those seats blue. Jeffries predicted that Republicans would only win two or three of the Texas seats, an outcome that would make the redistricting math more lopsided in Democrats\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

The remaining wild card is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has called a special legislative session for redistricting. A successful redraw in Florida could rebalance the scales. But the end result of the redistricting war that Texas kicked off appears to be a draw, or close to it, regardless.<\/p>\n

Already, Jeffries has pledged that Democrats will target eight GOP incumbents in Florida, arguing that a new map would spread Republican voters too thin and make the party\u2019s existing representatives vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said that one side effect of the Texas redistricting is the loss of incumbents and senior members to retirement \u2014 and that it reflected poorly on Republicans that they had traded that away for a redistricting war they seem unlikely to win.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Gov. Greg Abbott] sold out his entire delegation to their own detriment, and it\u2019s been devastating,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cBut also, they should have spoken up. We\u2019ve lost some very reputable members.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,288,2830,27,2850,29,28,6748],"class_list":{"0":"post-264158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-redistricting","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-congressional-delegation","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}