Texas state Senator Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, speaks in a crowd of different Democratic state lawmakers exterior the Massachusetts State Home on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025 in Boston.
Leah Willingham/AP
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Leah Willingham/AP
President Trump sparked a nationwide dash to redistrict when he requested Texas Republicans to attract 5 extra congressional seats for the GOP of their state forward of subsequent yr’s elections.
In response, Democratic and Republican leaders in at the very least seven different states have mentioned they’re open to shifting their political strains within the struggle over the U.S. Home, however which means very various things somewhere else.
States are sometimes sure by constitutional language and legal guidelines that dictate how redistricting occurs. And time is working out for maps to be set forward of the 2026 midterms.
To see how possible redistricting is earlier than then, we requested reporters within the NPR Community to elucidate what is going on on of their states.
Texas
Blaise Gainey, The Texas Newsroom
Redistricting in Texas, the middle of the struggle, is way from over. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to go a brand new congressional map forward of the midterms at Trump’s request. To stall that course of, most Home Democrats broke quorum by leaving the state and spreading out across the nation. In some unspecified time in the future, their return, and a vote on the map, is inevitable.
“Once we first began this journey, we talked about the truth that finally they nonetheless may go these maps. However we’ll do all the pieces we will to get up America,” mentioned Home Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu this week.
Whereas it is unclear when Democrats will return, Texas Republicans plan to finish the present particular session Friday and instantly start a brand new one. Democrats are demanding that the main target be on Hill Nation Flood victims earlier than lawmakers flip to the the political map, however Abbott has already mentioned that the agenda for the upcoming session will start with redistricting.
Abbott responded to these calls for on social media, calling it embarrassing and telling Democrats to “come again and struggle like Texans.”
California
Man Marzorati, KQED
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is charging forward with a plan to convey the redistricting struggle on to voters in a particular election on November 4.
Newsom, with the help of Democrats within the state legislature, is trying to redraw California’s congressional maps to assist Democrats choose up 5 further U.S. Home seats. Californians handed line-drawing energy to an unbiased fee greater than a decade in the past, so Newsom’s plan can solely transfer ahead with voter approval.
The state legislature reconvenes on August 18, and lawmakers can have till August 22 to put a redistricting measure on the poll. The map that may go earlier than voters is anticipated to be launched later this week. Newsom mentioned the brand new strains would solely take impact if different Republican states continued with their gerrymandering efforts.
“It wasn’t our determination to be right here,” Newsom mentioned Friday. “We are attempting to defend democracy versus see it destroyed district by district.”
Republicans, pro-democracy, and good authorities advocacy teams oppose Newsom’s redistricting gambit. Former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who helped spearhead the transfer towards unbiased redistricting, can be opposed, spokesperson Daniel Ketchall advised NPR.
Missouri
Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio
In Missouri, lawmakers may return this fall to carve up Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas Metropolis-based district. Opposite to some assumptions, Republicans have the power to remodel Cleaver’s district right into a strong Republican seat. Not like the first Congressional District, it is not protected underneath the Voting Rights Act as a result of it would not have a majority inhabitants of shade.
Missouri Republicans have been upfront about their motivations: They wish to forestall Democrats from taking up the U.S. Home.
“The work that President Trump has accomplished has turned our nation again from the sting of the cliff that the Biden administration was driving us over,” Senate President Professional Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Republican, wrote on Fb.
But it surely’s an open query whether or not any map would stand as much as judicial scrutiny.
“The structure requires that it’s accomplished after the decennial census, and it would not tackle whether or not it may be accomplished at one other time,” says Jim Layton, a former Missouri solicitor basic who defended the state’s congressional maps in courtroom again within the 2010s. “I’d anticipate that somebody would problem the map, saying that underneath our structure, there’s just one likelihood after every census to create a brand new map.”
Ohio
Sarah Donaldson, Ohio Statehouse Information Bureau
Ohio is the one state due for a mid-decade redraw of its congressional strains. That is as a result of 2018 reforms require each events to agree on the map, which they did not do final redistricting cycle. That is why nationwide Republicans are eyeing Ohio for features of two to a few seats.
Among the many districts to look at are Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes, each of whom had been already nationwide targets due to slender 2024 margins. Kaptur gained by lower than 1% in 2024. To get one other doable win, Republicans must draw the town of Cincinnati right into a pink district, which is a heavier raise.
The Ohio Structure says a 60% majority of the legislature should go its redistricting plan by the tip of September. If they cannot come to a consensus, the Ohio Redistricting Fee takes over. “It is only a query of whether or not the events can go one thing in a bipartisan trend,” Home Speaker Matt Huffman mentioned in June.
The fee, which would come with seven politicians and skew closely Republican, faces a last deadline in November. The state’s highest courtroom rejected its maps greater than as soon as in 2021. Proper now, Ohio has 10 GOP and 5 Democratic seats in Congress.
New York
Jimmy Vielkind, WNYC
The New York State Structure prohibits gerrymandering and specifies that redistricting takes place as soon as a decade, after the discharge of the U.S. census. Somebody must efficiently sue to invalidate the present map to start the method sooner, in accordance with state Sen. Michael Gianaris.
So as an alternative, the Democrat from Queens has launched a decision to amend the state structure. Constitutional amendments should be handed by two successively elected crops of state lawmakers after which accepted by voters. That course of could not be accomplished till 2027 on the earliest, however Gianaris says it is nonetheless price doing.
“I do not suppose this can be a one-off, that Texas is doing this now and we can’t hear about it once more,” he says. “I believe it will make sense for New York to alter our course of so we could be gamers.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned she is exploring all her choices. The Democratic governor says she needs to abolish the state’s Unbiased Redistricting Fee and provides extra management to Democratic leaders.
There are 19 Democrats and 7 Republicans within the state’s U.S. Home delegation. The congressional map was drawn by a court-appointed particular grasp after Republicans sued to throw out a Democrat-drawn map.
Illinois
Alex Degman, WBEZ
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker continues to depart the door open to redistricting the state’s congressional map as he hosts greater than two dozen Texas Home Democrats in suburban Chicago.
“Certain, we may redistrict. It is doable,” he mentioned Monday. However discovering one other Democratic seat in Illinois is a tall order.
Illinois misplaced a congressional seat after the 2020 census resulting from inhabitants decline. Democrats drew the map to edge out two Republicans and type a brand new Democratic-leaning district. The state’s congressional delegation has 14 Democrats and three Republicans. The three GOP districts are closely Republican—two of them voted for Trump by greater than 40 factors within the 2024 election.
Political challenges apart, congressional candidates have till Nov. 3 to file to run of their districts, so a brand new map would should be accepted earlier than then.
Illinois state lawmakers do not appear on board but—leaders in each the Illinois Home and Senate say there aren’t any present discussions about redistricting.
Home Republican Chief Tony McCombie would not suppose Pritzker has the political energy to pressure it, noting Democratic supermajorities have already stymied a few his legislative priorities. “If [Illinois House] Speaker [Emanuel Chris] Welch needs to do it, then will probably be accomplished,” she says.
Indiana
Brandon Smith, Indiana Public Broadcasting
Vice President J.D. Vance got here to Indianapolis final week to fulfill with Republican Gov. Mike Braun and Republican state legislative leaders to debate redrawing Indiana’s congressional district strains to learn Republicans.
Braun mentioned he and state legislative leaders “listened” however would not say greater than that.
Article 4, Part 5 of the Indiana Structure limits redistricting of Indiana’s maps for the state legislature to the yr or two after the decennial census.
But it surely’s state regulation that limits redrawing Indiana’s congressional district strains to the primary common legislative session after the census, although the Republican supermajority may extra simply change that than the state structure.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat and one of many legislators who may lose their seat, known as on state GOP leaders to not “bend a knee.”
“And it doesn’t matter what district they put me in, I’ll struggle for working-class individuals,” Mrvan mentioned.
Florida
Regan McCarthy, WFSU
In Florida, state Home Speaker Daniel Perez is forming a choose committee on redistricting. The group will deal with questions surrounding the so-called Honest Districts Amendments within the state structure.
The amendments, handed in 2010, prohibit political gerrymandering and specify {that a} district can’t be drawn to disclaim minorities the power to “elect representatives of their alternative.” That performed a central position in a lawsuit towards the state’s congressional map handed in 2022.
That map, pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, break up up a North Florida district held by a Black Democrat. Beneath the brand new map, Republicans had been profitable in profitable the seat. Final month, the Florida Supreme Court docket upheld the political boundaries and located that the previous district possible constituted race-based gerrymandering, violating federal equal rights protections. The ruling has led to questions concerning the future enforceability of the amendments—one thing Perez says the committee will look into.
DeSantis advised reporters he thinks different components of the present congressional map may have related racial gerrymandering points.
In the meantime, Democrats are decrying the hassle. Democratic state Rep. Michele Rayner mentioned in a press release she thinks “The speaker and our legislative management are taking part in a harmful recreation with our democracy.”
This story was edited by Acacia Squires, senior editor on the NPR States Workforce.
