Donald Trump and Republicans are nervous about the 2026 midterms. The president’s polling numbers are very bad (despite what he claims), and it doesn’t seem like Americans are thrilled with his lackeys in Congress who have supported the administration’s assault on Medicaid and other social services, his hardline immigration crackdown, or his chaotic approach to the economy. Democrats only need to flip a few seats to win back control of the House of Representatives, which would allow them to block Trump’s legislative agenda and launch investigations into his administration’s rank corruption.

Trump and Republicans have responded by trying to game the system, including by attempting to worm their way into state election infrastructure, and, most notably, by pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s legislative map and take seats away from Democrats. The situation exploded this week, with Democrats fleeing the state to block the GOP from enacting the change. Here’s everything you need to know:

States redistrict their electoral maps every 10 years, after the national census, so that congressional districts can reflect the state’s population. These redistricting efforts are supposed to comply with anti-discrimination laws outlined in the Voting Rights Act of 1968, and the Constitution mandates districts to have approximately equal populations. 

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing these maps in order to favor a certain political party.

When a district is gerrymandered, its boundaries are intentionally drawn to include or exclude specific subsets of voters — sometimes down to a street level — in order to tip the scales toward one party. Since voters don’t typically get a say in how their electoral map is drawn, gerrymandering is essentially the practice of a party choosing its own electorate in order to guarantee favorable outcomes for themselves. 

What are Republicans trying to do in Texas?

States are not supposed to redistrict for another five years, but Trump is pushing Texas to do it now. The state’s Republican-controlled legislature has responded by proposing a new map that would likely give them five new seats by drawing conservative voters into districts currently held by Democrats, without endangering any Republican districts.

The new map was concocted during a special session Governor Greg Abbott called last month under the guise of bolstering the state’s response to devastating flash floods in early July. The most notable item on the agenda, however, was a speed revision of the state’s already heavily gerrymandered district map.

“This is a five-alarm fire, what’s happening in Texas,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Rolling Stone last month. “Donald Trump has already said that if he does this to Texas, he wants to do this all across the country.”

The state legislature still needs to vote on the map before it’s official. The special session Abbott called last month is slated to end on August 19.

How have Texas Democrats responded?

They outright left the state. Texas law requires at least two thirds of the 150-representative state legislature to be present in order to establish the quorum necessary to conduct business. On Sunday afternoon, over 50 Democratic members of the state legislature fled to Chicago in a last-ditch effort to block their GOP colleagues from approving the redrawn map. 

It’s not the first time such a strategy has been used by the state’s Democratic minority. In 2021, Texas Democrats holed up in Washington, D.C., for six weeks to try to block the passage of Texas’ current district map — which remains tied up in legal battles over accusations of gerrymandering. Following the 2021 quorum break, Texas Republicans passed legislation imposing heavy fines and penalties on lawmakers who leave the state to break quorum. 

Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) have threatened to arrest and prosecute the truant lawmakers, as well as anyone who assists them in avoiding a return to Texas. The legislature voted on Monday to issue civil arrest warrants for the Democrats who bolted (these are not enforceable in Illinois, where the Democrats are staying), and Abbott instructed the Texas Rangers to “investigate fleeing Texas House Democrats for potential bribery and any other potential legal violations connected to their refusal to appear for a quorum.”

Abbott said on Tuesday that state officers are “on the streets” looking for Democratic lawmakers who did not show up for a quorum but are still in the state. He also claimed that he could move to remove these Democrats from office and hold elections to replace them.

How have Democrats responded around the nation?

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) traveled to Texas to meet with state legislators before they fled the state, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is hosting the Democrats that fled, and governors of other prominent liberal states seem to recognize that the party needs to start fighting fire with fire.

Governor Gavin Newsom is rallying Democrats in California behind a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map and have voters approve it before the midterms. “Legally, we can do it. Politically, we must do it,” said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. Katie Porter, another gubernatorial candidate, also supports the plan. “Texas Republicans are leaving us no choice,” she told CNN. “They are tinkering with the rules of our democracy.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, too, has signaled that she supports redistricting in the state should Texas redraw its map, and lawmakers introduced a resolution to amend the state’s constitution and allow them to redraw the map in the middle of the decade. New York used an independent commission to redistrict for the first time after the 2020 census. It was a disaster. The commission failed to agree on a plan, leading to years of back-and-forth between the commission, the legislature, and the courts.

“I’m tired of fighting this fight with my hand tied behind my back,” Hochul said this week amid talks of amending the state’s constitution, a move that could lead to a new congressional map by 2027. “With all due respect to the good government groups, politics is a political process.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, meanwhile, is reportedly headed to Indiana this week to meet with Governor Mike Braun about gerrymandering the state’s map as part of the tit-for-tat with Democrats.

What are Trump and Republicans saying?

Trump has been pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the map in order to bolster his chances of retaining control of Congress after the midterms. “There could be some other states, we’re going to get another three, or four, or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one.” Trump said in July. “Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.”

The president weighed in again on Tuesday, after Democrats fled the state, telling CNBC that he is “entitled” to five additional seats in Texas, citing his performance in the election.

“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats,” he said. “We have a good governor and we have good people in Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”

“I don’t know,” host Joe Kernan replied. “I have to check on that.”
Aaron Blake of The Washington Post quickly pointed out on X that the 56 percent Trump won in Texas in 2024 is not even close to the highest margin ever, ranking 15th, historically.