Jul 28, 2025 Featured Videos
Texas state Representative James Talarico, a rising Democratic Party star, said voters want to see authentic moral leadership from their politicians. He said that he is considering jumping into the 2026 race for Senate, but is right now focused on the special legislative session in the Texas statehouse and combating republic redistricting efforts.

Redistricting usually happens after the once-a-decade population count by the U.S. Census Bureau or in response to a court ruling. Now, Texas Republicans want to break that tradition — and other states could follow suit.
President Trump has asked the Texas Legislature to create districts, in time for next year's midterm elections, that will send five more Republicans to Washington and make it harder for Democrats to regain the majority and blunt his agenda. The state has 38 seats in the House. Republicans now hold 25 and Democrats 12, with one seat vacant after the death of a Democrat.
“There’s been a lot more efforts by the parties and political actors to push the boundaries – literally and figuratively – to reconfigure what the game is,” said Doug Spencer, Rothgerber Jr. Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of Colorado.
Other states are waiting to see what Texas does and whether to follow suit.
The rules of redistricting can be vague and variable; each state has its own set of rules and procedures. Politicians are gauging what voters will tolerate when it comes to politically motivated mapmaking.
Here’s what to know about the rules of congressional redistricting:
When does redistricting normally happen?
Every decade, the Census Bureau collects population data used to divide the 435 House seats among the 50 states based on the updated head count.
It's a process known as reapportionment. States that grew relative to others might gain a seat at the expense of those whose populations stagnated or declined.
States use their own procedures to draw lines for the assigned number of districts. The smallest states receive just one representative, which means the entire state is a single congressional district.
Some state constitutions require independent commissions to devise the political boundaries or to advise the legislature. When legislatures take the lead, lawmakers can risk drawing lines that end up challenged in court, usually for violating the Voting Rights Act. Mapmakers can get another chance to resubmit new maps. Sometimes, judges draw the maps on their own.
Is midcycle redistricting allowed?
By the first midterm elections after the latest population count, each state is ready with its maps, but those districts do not always stick. Courts can find that the political lines are unconstitutional.
There is no national impediment to a state trying to redraw districts in the middle of the decade and to do it for political reasons, such as increasing representation by the party in power.
“The laws about redistricting just say you have to redistrict after every census,” Spencer said. “And then some state legislatures got a little clever and said, well it doesn’t say we can’t do it more.”
Some states do have laws that would prevent midcycle redistricting or make it difficult to do so in a way that benefits one party.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., has threatened to retaliate against the GOP push in Texas by drawing more favorable Democratic seats in his state. That goal, however, is complicated by a constitutional amendment that requires an independent commission to lead the process.
Is Texas’ effort unprecedented?
Texas has done it before.
When the Legislature failed to agree on a redistricting plan after the 2000 census, a federal court stepped in with its own map.
Republican Tom DeLay of Texas, who was then the U.S. House majority leader, thought his state should have five more districts friendly to his party. “I’m the majority leader and we want more seats,′′ he said at the time.
Statehouse Democrats protested by fleeing to Oklahoma, depriving the Legislature of enough votes to officially conduct any business. But DeLay eventually got his way, and Republicans replaced Democrats in five seats in 2004.