Congressional maps are normally drawn once a decade, after the census. In the summer of 2025, at President Trump's urging, the Texas legislature redrew its map anyway. The 2021 map had produced 25 Republican and 13 Democratic seats out of 38; the new one is engineered for 30 Republican seats, a gain of five, to shore up the party's narrow majority in the House.

The court fight

Groups representing Black and Latino voters sued, and in November 2025 a three-judge federal panel blocked the map, finding evidence that lawmakers had drawn lines by race. On 4 December 2025 the Supreme Court paused that ruling and let Texas use the map. Justice Alito wrote that it was "indisputable" that the motive was partisan advantage "pure and simple", and partisan gerrymandering is something the Court decided in 2019 that federal courts will not police. On 27 April 2026 the Court upheld the map for good. It is the map Texas votes on this November.

How the map does it

The moves are the ones the game teaches. Democratic voters in the big metros are packed into fewer districts, and the remainder is cracked across districts that run deep into Republican countryside. The targets included Houston's 9th district and the 35th, the strip that used to connect Austin to San Antonio, both redrawn to lean Republican.

Harris County under the 2021 map, shaded by the 2016 presidential vote: three deep-blue districts hold the city, pale red ones surround them.
Before: Harris County under the 2021 map, shaded by the 2016 vote. Three deep-blue seats soak up the city; the pale red ones around them stay safe.

The 2025 map keeps the packing and adds a crack. The 18th is drawn even tighter around the city's Democratic core, the 7th becomes a second sink for blue votes, and the 9th, once 81 percent Democratic, is stretched out into Republican territory until it leans the other way.

Harris County under the 2025 map, same shading: the 18th packed tighter, the 7th a second blue sink, the 9th redrawn to lean Republican.
After: the 2025 map. The 18th packs even tighter, the 7th becomes a second blue sink, and the 9th, 81 percent Democratic above, is redrawn to lean Republican.

Why it matters

Texas started the wave. California answered with a map of its own; Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and, after a Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee followed. Ten states redrew before the 2026 midterms. The Cook Political Report counts the median House seat as now leaning Republican by three points, two points redder than before this cycle's redraws.

Try it yourself

Pack and crack Houston or Austin for either side and see how far a majority can be stretched.

Houston, TX (2016)
Play as RepublicansPlay as Democrats
Austin, TX (2016)
Play as RepublicansPlay as Democrats

Sources

  • Texas Tribune: Supreme Court orders Texas to use 2025 map (4 Dec 2025)
  • Texas Tribune: Texas' new congressional map can be used, Supreme Court rules (27 Apr 2026)
  • Votebeat: Supreme Court lets Texas keep new congressional map in 2026 midterms (5 Dec 2025)
  • Cook Political Report: the 2026 Cook PVI (2026)
  • Ballotpedia: Redistricting in Texas ahead of the 2026 elections (2026)