By Darren Lyn
HOUSTON, United States (AA) - A federal court ruled Tuesday that the state of Texas cannot use its newly passed congressional redistricting maps for the 2026 midterm elections.
The three-judge US Circuit Court panel from Texas voted 2-1 against using the gerrymandered maps. The redrawn maps would have created five new potential Republican seats in the US House of Representatives. Instead, the state will have to stick to the congressional lines passed in 2021.
The ruling referenced a lawsuit brought by six advocacy groups who sued because of the new district lines, saying Texas lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters by drawing racially gerrymandered maps.
"The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics," Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling. "To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map."
"For the reasons explained ... the Court PRELIMINARILY ENJOINS the State from using the 2025 Map," said Brown. "The Court ORDERS that the 2026 congressional election in Texas shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021."
The decision is a major blow to US President Donald Trump, who urged Texas and other Republican-majority states to redraw their congressional maps in hopes of retaining the razor-thin three-seat majority the Republican Party has in Congress.
The unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan pushed by Trump ignited multiple states, Republican and Democratic alike, to redraw their respective congressional maps.
The Texas congressional maps were easily passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in August and quickly signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. Republicans were hoping that the newly-drawn Texas map would yield control of 30 of the state’s 38 congressional districts, up from the 25 seats they currently hold, and help protect the Republican majority in the US House. But that advantage may have disappeared after the ruling.
Unlike Texas, the state of California, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, placed its newly-drawn congressional maps on the ballot, which voters approved Nov. 4. The new voting maps could create five additional Democratic congressional seats in next year's midterm elections. That, combined with Tuesday's ruling that Texas is not allowed to use its new maps for 2026, could be a boost for Democrats in their quest to take the House majority.
Texas Republicans are likely to appeal the case to the US Supreme Court, but the window of opportunity to do that is very small, as candidates only have until Dec. 8 to file for the upcoming March primary election.