Multistate Redistricting Fight Escalates as Texas, California and Florida Redraw Congressional Maps

In 2025, Texas Republicans pursued a mid-decade congressional redistricting effort, prompting more than 50 Democratic state legislators to leave Texas in August 2025 to deny the legislature quorum and block the special session Governor Greg Abbott had called. Abbott responded by suing to remove state Rep. Gene Wu from office and calling the departing Democrats "cowards"; Wu said his "constitutional duty" was not to participate in the session. In response to the Texas redraw, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Election Rigging Response Act, a legislative package creating new congressional maps designed to shift five Republican-held U.S. House seats toward Democrats. California's measure passed the state Assembly 57-20 and the Senate 30-8, both along party lines, reflecting Democrats' three-quarters supermajority in the legislature. Unlike the Texas maps, which took effect through the legislature alone, California's new districts require voter approval via a special election scheduled for November 4, 2025. The state Supreme Court declined to take up a Republican challenge seeking to block the fast-tracked timeline for placing the measure before voters. Separately, in April 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called a special legislative session to consider redrawing that state's congressional map, which currently includes eight Democratic-held districts, saying the goal was to ensure maps "accurately reflect the population" of Florida. DeSantis publicly clashed with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after Jeffries warned against Florida redistricting, with DeSantis inviting Jeffries to campaign in the state ahead of the 2026 midterms; the outcome of Florida's redistricting session was not detailed in available reporting. The status of Abbott's lawsuit against Wu and whether the Texas Democrats returned to allow the special session to proceed remain unresolved in the supplied reporting. California voters were set to decide the fate of the new congressional maps in the November 4, 2025 special election, with the broader national impact on the 2026 midterm balance of power still undetermined.