Texas lawmakers early Saturday completed a rare mid-decade redistricting, sending Governor Greg Abbott a congressional map engineered to give Republicans as many as five additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. The Senate approved the plan 18-11 along party lines after more than eight hours of debate, three days after the House passed it 88-52. The map, drafted at the urging of President Donald Trump and steered through the legislature by Republican Senator Phil King, reshapes districts in Austin, Dallas, Houston and South Texas. Supporters say it secures the state’s recent voting trends, while Democrats argue it dilutes Black and Latino voting power and violates the Voting Rights Act. Democratic lawmakers tried to block the measure with a two-week walkout that denied the House a quorum and, on the Senate floor, with an aborted overnight filibuster by Senator Carol Alvarado. Procedural moves by the Republican majority cut those protests short. Abbott, a Republican, said he will “swiftly” sign the bill, which would take effect for the next election cycle unless courts intervene. Civil-rights groups have already signalled lawsuits, setting up the first legal test as soon as September. The showdown has intensified a national partisan arms race: hours after the Texas vote, California’s Democratic legislature advanced its own proposal aimed at flipping five GOP seats.