US state of Texas asks Supreme Court to reinstate redrawn congressional maps for 2026 elections

​​​​​​​By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - The state of Texas asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to restore congressional maps that were recently passed for the midterm elections in 2026, according to media reports.

The emergency request asks the nation's highest court to overturn a lower court ruling that reverted the state to use previously-drawn maps from 2021 because of litigation by advocacy groups that the maps were racially biased against Black and Hispanic communities.

US President Donald Trump requested that Republican-led states like Texas redraw their voting maps to give Republicans an advantage in maintaining the party's razor-thin three-seat majority in the US House of Representatives during the midterm elections.

Supreme Court justices have blocked rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came months before elections.

The new Texas maps would potentially add five new Republican House seats, but the state's decision to redraw its voting maps set off a firestorm in other states to do the same.

Most notably, the state of California put new congressional maps before voters on Nov. 4 and they passed new voting maps that could add possibly five new Democratic seats in Congress.

Texas did not put the new voting maps in front of voters, but instead passed the redrawn maps through the state's Republican-controlled legislature, which Gov. Greg Abbott immediately signed into law.

If the lower-court ruling holds, Texas could be forced to hold elections next year using the 2021 congressional maps based on the 2020 census.

The Supreme Court is separately considering a case in Louisiana, which could further limit race-based districts.