The Texas House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, 88–52 along party lines, after a two-week Democratic boycott that had briefly denied the chamber a quorum. The bill, authored by Republican Rep. Todd Hunter, redraws districts in Austin, Dallas, Houston and South Texas and is designed to give the GOP as many as five additional seats in the U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats denounced the map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that disenfranchises minority voters and violates both the Fourteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. Party leaders said they will challenge the measure in federal court once it clears the Republican-controlled Senate and is signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, which could happen within days. Former President Donald Trump hailed the House vote as a "big win" and urged Republican lawmakers in Florida, Indiana and other states to follow suit, framing the Texas outcome as part of a broader campaign to secure a larger GOP majority in Congress. In response, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, is backing legislation to redraw his state’s map to create five additional Democratic-leaning districts, underscoring how Texas has become the opening battleground in a widening national redistricting fight.