5 things to know about the redistricting battle in Texas and beyond

5. Additional red state redistricting is underway

The Trump administration has been working to encourage other Republican-majority states to put forward new maps ahead of the 2026 elections. 

Vice President J.D. Vance traveled to Indiana on Aug. 7 to meet with the state’s Republican Gov. Mike Braun as well as the leadership of the Republican-led Indiana Senate and House to discuss the possibility of redrawing the state’s congressional districts, where Republicans hold seven of the state’s nine seats in the U.S. House. The effort to create new congressional districts in Indiana remains ongoing. 

The prospect of new congressional maps in Indiana has led to protests among Democrats and progressives. In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe released a statement on Aug. 29, unveiling what he called the Missouri First Map as he announced his intention to call a special session of the state legislature to approve the new map. 

The Republican-controlled Missouri Legislature approved a new map that modifies the Kansas City-based 5th District, currently represented by Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., to include several reliably Republican counties and splits the Kansas City-based Jackson County among three districts. The map is designed to increase the number of Republican-held districts in the state from 6 to 7. 

The effort to create new congressional districts in Missouri has led to litigation from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office over a push to ask voters to weigh in on the new congressional districts via a referendum. As explained in the lawsuit, if supporters of the referendum receive signatures from “five percent of legal voters in each of two-thirds of congressional districts in the state,” then the question can appear on the ballot and the new maps will not go into effect before the 2026 election. 

In Florida, Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez sent a memo to state lawmakers in early August informing them of his intention to create a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting. Republicans hold 20 of the state’s 28 congressional seats. However, Perez stressed in the memo that “we do not have the capacity to engage in the full redistricting process experienced during the 2020-2022 term.” 

Perez also told lawmakers, “Statements about redistricting that suggest an intent to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party, which is currently prohibited by the Florida Constitution, will also disqualify you from consideration” to serve on the committee.

Perez acknowledged the discussions about redistricting happening in other states while maintaining that the purpose of the committee was to review “the applicability and interpretation of certain provisions of the so-called ‘Fair Districts’ provision of the Florida Constitution and their intersection with Federal law.”

In an Aug. 12 interview on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted that his state was looking into working on redistricting next spring. 

In North Carolina, the Republican-controlled Senate voted 26-20 to approve a new map that would swap several counties between the state’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts in order to make the 1st Congressional District more favorable to Republicans. Currently, Republicans hold 10 of the state’s 14 congressional districts. The map is designed to increase the Republican edge in the state’s congressional delegation to 11-3. 

While the prospect of redistricting in several red states is designed to enhance Republicans’ edge in state congressional delegations, an Aug. 25 court ruling in Utah could result in the adoption of a map that is less favorable to Republicans. The ruling ordered the creation of a new congressional map, alleging that the current one violates a voter-approved law that bans partisan gerrymandering. 

The leadership of Utah’s Republican-controlled Legislature released a statement on Aug. 28 vowing to comply with the ruling while they pursue “every legal option available” to overturn it. The Utah Senate voted 18-9 and the Utah House of Representatives voted 56-17 to approve a new congressional map that they believe complies with the ruling. 

As explained by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, the map sought to replace the current districts, all four of which backed Trump by overwhelming margins in 2024, with two solidly Republican districts and two competitive districts. Trump’s margin would increase further in the 1st and 4th Congressional Districts while it would drop from 20 points to less than 7 points in the 2nd District and from 19 points to about 2 points in the 3rd District. 

The court rejected the map in a Nov. 10 ruling and instead ordered the enactment of a map submitted by the plaintiffs for the 2026 election. Wasserman noted that the map contains a district that backed Harris by 24 points while the other three districts remain strongly Republican. The new map is expected to give Democrats an easy pickup in Utah.