The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted 88–52 on 20 August to adopt a new congressional map that could give the party as many as five additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. The mid-decade redistricting, rare outside the post-census cycle, would raise the number of Republican-leaning districts in the state from 25 to roughly 30 out of 38. House Republicans said the redesign was intended to ‘improve Republican political performance,’ echoing President Donald Trump’s call for conservative states to shore up the party’s narrow congressional majority. Democrats, who had delayed the vote for two weeks by leaving the state to break quorum, called the map a racial gerrymander that dilutes Black and Hispanic votes and vowed to file suit under the Voting Rights Act. The measure now goes to the Republican-led state Senate, where passage is expected, and then to Governor Greg Abbott, who has indicated he will sign it. Trump hailed the House vote as a ‘big win,’ while Democrats in California signalled they will push a counter-measure to create more Democratic districts, underscoring a widening partisan battle over mid-cycle redistricting nationwide.