Texas Republicans have just unveiled new Trump-ordered congressional maps that eliminate five Democratic-held seats—deliberately shifting them to the GOP in a bid to lock down control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year. Critics are calling it illegal voter suppression and vowing to retaliate by redrawing maps in blue states.

Texas has 38 congressional seats. Twenty-five are currently held by Republicans. The new maps, if they go into effect, are expected to hand Republicans 30 seats.

Democrats are preparing to fight back, and House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reportedly is heading to Austin on Wednesday night.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) responded to the newly unveiled maps, declaring that merging two districts is “illegal voter suppression of Black and Latino Central Texans.”

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“By merging our Central Texas districts, Trump wants to commit yet another crime— this time, against Texas voters and against The Voting Rights Act,” Casar charged. “If Trump is allowed to rip the Voting Rights Act to shreds here in Central Texas, his ploy will spread like wildfire across the country. Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map.”

U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) issued a threat: “Hope it’s worth it! Say goodbye to [House Republican] Kevin Kiley and 5 other CA Republicans.”

“This is an attempt to steal the US House,” warned former Democratic spokesperson and strategist Jeb Fain. “The GOP knows they’re likely to lose the House next year, so they’re going to try to steal the election,” he added.

Democratic Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez declared, “Trump is ordering Texas Republicans to rig the maps in a desperate power grab so he doesn’t have to answer for his failed policies. This special session should be about flood relief for Texans. Not partisan b——-.”

Democratic Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones calls the Republicans’ new map “a racial and political bloodbath.”

“Pitted Democrats of color against each other,” she wrote. “Gave Trump more than he asked for,” and concluded: “This isn’t redistricting. It’s retribution.”

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) slammed Texas Republicans who, she wrote, “just rolled out their proposed Congressional map that cut 5 Democratic seats out of thin air. Let’s be clear: these maps are not about representation, it’s a power grab to silence voters and suppress votes. They know their policies are unpopular, and they are afraid of losing. So what do they try to do? Cheat. If your big idea is ‘cheat harder,’ maybe it’s time to rethink your politics.”

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Veteran journalist Lydia Polgreen warned, “SCOTUS has basically said this is a-ok so Democrats are suicidal if they do not fight fire with fire.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office wrote: “Texas just released a map so rigged it might as well have been drawn at Mar-a-Lago. California won’t be sitting on the sidelines.”

Congressman Casar is calling the move a “five alarm fire for democracy,” and charges that Trump has no plan to win the midterm elections, rather, he has “a plan for rigging the rules.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Congressman @GregCasar is right, Trump is trying to rig the midterms.

There will be no fair midterm elections if Trump and Abbott get their way. #txlege pic.twitter.com/TFm9WLaTxa

— Texas Democrats (@texasdemocrats) July 30, 2025

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Image via Reuters 

Immediately after President Donald Trump ordered Texas to create five new GOP-majority congressional districts in a nearly unprecedented mid-decade redistricting effort, Lone Star State Republicans leapt into action, setting off blue state Democrats who vowed to respond in kind. Today, Texas is expected to unveil its new congressional maps, handing the President exactly what he demanded.

Currently, Texas has 25 Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and thirteen seats that were won by Democrats.

According to Punchbowl News‘ Wednesday morning report, Governor Abbott’s new map would increase the number of (likely) Republican-held House seats from Texas to 30, and reduce the number of (likely) Democratic-held seats to just eight.

Five GOP seats alone, in theory, could hand Mike Johnson another term as Speaker of the House.

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“It’s huge news in Austin and on Capitol Hill,” Punchbowl News reported. “It may help the GOP keep control of the House in 2026 — or trigger redistricting fights in other state capitals as Democrats retaliate.”

There might be drawbacks for Republicans.

“Democrats have declared that Republicans are at grave risk of spreading their voters too thin and creating districts that could flip blue in a bad year for Republicans. This kind of redraw is known as a ‘dummymander.'”

But the five new likely GOP districts Texas has drawn all show Donald Trump having won those voters by double-digits, making it more difficult for Democrats to flip them.

Texas moving forward with their redistricting plan means that several blue states may also attempt to redraw their congressional maps: California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Minnesota, and Washington reportedly are all in various stages, from initial conversations to drafting legislation.

Last week, U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) warned, “if they’re gonna go nuclear in Texas, I’m gonna go nuclear in other places.”

Maryland House Democratic Majority Leader David Moon, who is drafting new redistricting legislation, told Politico, “it seems very clear that self defense is something we have to put as a priority.”

“If that’s where we are, and that’s where we’re forced to go, then I think that’s where Democratic states need to be prepared to go,” he added.

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House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has indicated he wants to reorganize the congressional maps in at least five states, to help Democrats pick up as many seats as possible.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is in support of redrawing California’s maps: “I don’t like redistricting in the middle of a decade, but if that’s the game that Republicans want to play, we have to make sure that they know we’re going to put everything on the table,” she told NewsNation, as The Sacramento Bee reported.

Texas is not the only red state expected to move forward with redrawing its maps.

Punchbowl News last week reported that while “Democrats are desperate to push back against President Donald Trump’s brazen attempt to shift the House map in the GOP’s favor…Republicans are trying to muscle through new maps in Texas, Ohio and Missouri, with more red states potentially on deck.”

Legal challenges aside, “some Democrats believe they could squeeze as many as six new seats out of California between a remapping and a good stiff anti–White House midterm breeze,” New York magazine’s Intelligencer reported.

Democrats have in their favor strong anti-Trump sentiment and the fact that the party in control of the White House usually loses seats during the midterms—a fact Trump is trying to negate by ordering the redistricting. But Democrats also have tied their own hands. In the name of good governance, many blue state have independent redistricting commissions, and they may need to go to court to reach their goals.

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Image via Reuters

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) delivered a searing critique of some of his fellow Democrats, accusing them of being “complicit with an authoritarian”—a clear reference to President Donald Trump. He also chastised a range of American institutions for “bending the knee” and “paying tribute.” He warned that if Democrats fail to unite and confront Trump and his administration’s agenda, they “deserve to lose.” But, he added, if they stand together and speak out with conviction, they can prevail.

“The heated exchange arose after Booker objected to a motion from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, to swiftly pass a package of bills related to law enforcement,” CBS News reported. “Booker said he wanted to make a change to the bloc of measures to ensure resources are distributed equally among law enforcement agencies in response to the Justice Department’s changes to grant programs and cancellation of awards.”

Booker, standing on the Senate floor, at times almost appearing to shout, did not hold back.

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“This to me is the problem with Democrats in America right now, is we’re willing to be complicit to Donald Trump, to let this pass through when we have all the leverage right now there is, to say, ‘if you’re as passionate about police as we are, then pass bills out of this body that will help the police officers in Washington, that will help the police officers in Illinois, that will help the police officers in New Jersey,'” he said, as CBS reported. “Don’t be complicit to the president of the United States.”

“The Democratic Party needs a wake-up call,” Booker declared in his rare rebuke, before shifting his focus to institutions that, in recent months, have capitulated to President Trump.

“I see law firms bending a knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles that those free speech rights, that you can take on any client—why are you bending the knee?” he demanded.

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“I see universities! They should be bastions of free speech, bending at the knee to this president. I see businesses taking late night talk show hosts off the air because they dare to insult a president. I see people who want mergers, suddenly think that they have to pay tribute to this president,” he observed.

“And what are the very people here elected to defend the Constitution of the United States, saying? ‘Oh, well, today, let’s look the other way and pass some resources that won’t go to Connecticut, that won’t go to Illinois, that won’t go to New York, that will go to the states he likes,'” Booker said, chastising his fellow blue state lawmakers.

“That is complicity with an authoritarian leader who is trashing our Constitution,” he charged.

“It’s time for Democrats to have a backbone. It’s time for us to fight. It’s time for us to draw lines.”

“And when it comes to the safety of my state, being denied these grants, that’s why I’m standing here. Don’t question my integrity,” he warned. “Don’t question my motives. I’m standing for Jersey! I am standing for my police officers. I’m standing for the Constitution, and I’m standing for what’s right.”

“And dear God, if you want to come at me that way, you’re gonna have to take it up with me, because there’s too much on the line right now in America,” Booker declared ominously.

“As people’s due process rights and freedom of the speech rights and secret police are running around this country, picking people up off the streets, who have a legal right to be here. There’s too much going on in this country.”

“When are we gonna stand together for principles that I just heard that were agreed with? When are we gonna stand together? If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose. But if we stand united, if we stand strong, if we stand with other people, if we tell with a chorus of conviction that America, what this president is doing is wrong, if we stand up and speak that way, dear God, we will win.”

Senator Booker’s remarks elicited a wide variety of praise, as seen below, as well as criticism.

Watch the video below or at this link.

BREAKING: In a stunning moment, a passionate Sen. Cory Booker excoriates Democrats, saying “it’s time to have a backbone” and blasts corporations and organizations for “bending the knee” to Trump.

This is INCREDIBLE!💥💥pic.twitter.com/DUqvq5SPl3

— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) July 29, 2025

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