Texas legislators approve a new electoral map that favors Republicans

Photo foot, The president of the House of Representatives, Dustin Burrows, hits the hammer to restore the order during the debate on the new draft redistribution of districts.

- Author, Nardine Saad
- Author's title, BBC News
2 hours

Texas legislators have approved new electoral maps designed to give Republicans advantage in next year's elections to the United States House of Representatives.

The Republicans of the Texas House of Representatives approved the new voting lines in an 88-52 vote, creating five new seats of republican trend.

After two weeks of clashes, the Democrats fled the State to paralyze the vote and bring together their supporters against the redistribution plans of districts.

The maps will now pass to the State Senate, where they are expected to be approved quickly and then signed by the Governor of Texas.

Texas's decision has triggered battles for the redistribution of districts in the United States, governed by the two majority parties.

President Donald Trump, who supported the redesign of the maps to safeguard the Republican majority in the House of Representatives of the USA, reacted with these words: “Great victory for the great state of Texas !!!”.

Republicans have a scarce majority in the lower house of Congress, which democrats aspire to recover in the mid -term legislative elections of 2026.

Wednesday's vote in Texas occurred after a dramatic confrontation in which the Democrats fled through the state borders to deny the Republicans the necessary quorum in the state legislative body to celebrate a vote.

The Governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, ordered the arrest of absent Democrats, and some of them said the forces of the order had watched their houses while they were out.

Legislators returned this week, stating that they had achieved their goal of calling national attention to the matter.

State representatives observe the redistribution maps of electoral districts during the debate on the Electoral District Redistribution Plan in the Austin Capitol, on Wednesday, August 20, 2025. — Photo foot, “Gerrymandering” (redrawing electoral borders to favor a political party), which the two main parties practice and is legal in the United States.

In an effort to ensure that the Democrats did not try to stop the vote again, the president of the Chamber of Representatives of Texas, Dustin Burrows, ordered the doors of the legislative enclosure on Monday.

He also said that the Democrats would be “positions in custody” of a police officer designated to ensure that they returned to the House of Representatives on Wednesday for the vote of the redistribution of districts.

One of the legislators, Nicole Collier, decided to sleep in the camera instead of being escorted by an agent. His protest extended among the Democrats, and others joined her and broke their police escort agreements.

Domino effect

Since Texas began planning these new electoral maps, other states controlled by both political parties – including Florida, New York, Ohio and Missouri- have been weighing similar changes.

California legislators are currently debating new maps that would give new advantages to Democrats in five districts, which would annul the changes made in Texas.

A key disposition in California says that maps would only take effect if Texas or other states continued with changes that favored Republicans.

After Wednesday's vote, the governor of California (Democrat), Gavin Newsom, wrote in X: “This is serious, Texas.”

The new Texas maps raised a stir around gerrymandering (redraw the electoral borders to favor a political party), who practice the two main parties and is legal unless it is ruled that has racial motivations.

Like other states, Texas usually redraws its congressional districts once per decade, when the new population data of the US Census are published.

Texas Democrats alleged that the redesign of the maps before the next population count in 2030 was carried out following racial lines, an argument that has been rejected by Republicans.

The electoral maps approved in 2021 after the last population count are still the object of litigation for complaints of racial discrimination.

Texas state lawmakers huddle in the House chamber

During one of the many heated exchanges during the debate in the House of Representatives of Texas, Republican Legislator Todd Hunter, who presented the draft redistribution law of districts, was applauded while the Democrats brought the Democrats.

“Don't come to this camera and say we don't include you,” he said. “You left us for 18 days, and that's wrong.”

The Chamber Democrats questioned the legality of the maps and accused the Republicans of trying to “steal” the elections.

“Let's talk about cowardice and cheat,” said Democratic Legislator Ann Johnson.

“The root of all this revolves around racism and power,” he added. “A simple power outburst.”

Democrats and civil rights defense groups have affirmed that the new maps will dilute the vote power of minorities, which would violate federal law, and have threatened to file demands.

*This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, as part of a pilot program.