Trump tells Texas Republicans to remake state congressional maps to help House majority

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is urging Texas Republicans to remake the state’s congressional map to build more housing seats that are good for his party, a broad effort to help the Republicans retain control of the chamber in next year’s midterm elections.

The president’s signal is part of a strategy Trump may have taken to avoid repeating his first term, while Democrats put the House in the presidency just two years later. It is shortly before the special session planned by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature to begin next week, during which it will consider a new congressional map to further marginalize Democrats in the state.

When he left the White House for Pittsburgh, Trump was asked about the possibility of increasing Republican-friendly areas in Pittsburgh, Trump replied: “Texas will be the largest. That will be five.”

Trump called members of the Republican Texas congressional delegation earlier Tuesday and told them that the state legislature would reassign five new award-winning seats, a familiar phone call that has no authority to discuss. The call was first reported by Punchbowl News.

After the 2020 census, the Congressional map remains the same at the end of this decade. If Texas remakes them at Trump’s request, that could lead to other states doing the same, including those controlled by Democrats. In response to Texas’ plan, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media: “Two can play this game.”

Still, Democrats may at least tie their hands. Many states controlled by the party have their national legislation and congressional maps drawn by independent commissions that should not benefit either party. This is the case in California, where Newsom has no role in re-dividing the game after voters approved the committee system with 2008 voting measures.

The redivision is the redrawing of constitutional mandatory procedures for political areas after a decade-old census to ensure they have an equal population. However, there is no prohibition on reconsideration of the map between censuses, and sometimes the court’s ruling makes this mandatory mandate. However, it is unusual to voluntarily re-dividate Trump’s encouraging wave.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries won’t comment on the rollback of a nonpartisan system like California on Tuesday, but instead says Trump’s push will “destroy freedom, fair elections.”

“Civil servants should win the votes of the people they want to represent. What the Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to let politicians choose their voters,” Jeffries said in a news conference.

Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, whose district includes part of Austin, also criticized Texas Republicans for focusing on the July 4 holiday flooding killed at least 132 people but remained missing.

“There is no doubt that every level of government has failed,” Doggett said. “Re-dividing, this plan is an act of despair.” ”

The Texas special session, scheduled to begin Monday, is intended to focus primarily on the consequences of deadly floods.

The meeting agenda set by Republican Governor Greg Abbott sets plans that “provides revised legislation to re-dividend plans based on constitutional issues raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

Republicans in Ohio are also expected to re-craft maps after years of political and court struggles over the state’s rezoning process. The Republican-controlled legislature is considering extending the party’s leadership in the congressional delegation to 13-2. It currently has a 10-5 advantage.

Still, there are practical restrictions on new seats that any party can squeeze from the map. That’s why some Texas Republicans are hesitant about another redraw. In 2011, the party’s lawmakers drew a positive map to expand its majority, only finding the seats they believed were safely washed away in Trump’s first semester 2018 democratic wave election.

In response, the map was drawn more cautiously in 2021, predominately retaining the large numbers that the Republicans currently have in the Congressional delegation. The state has 25 Republican House members, while 12 Democrats and one Democratic vacancy program are filled by special elections.

Any effort to expand the number of Republican seats will mean redistribution of Democratic voters in these blue areas to the Republican Party. This could allow the formerly secure Republican district to offer a large fee to the Democratic column, which was predicted by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Suze Delbene in a press conference on Tuesday.

“Almost any new map drawn by the Republican Party in Texas will inevitably create more competitive areas,” she said. “This plan to dig the maps hardly makes their majority. This will expand the battlefield for most competitions.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is more optimistic about the midterm re-division, noting that Latino voters in Texas have been favoring Republicans in recent elections. He said remapping this year “will mean a huge gain for Texas Republicans.”

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Associated Press Congressional reporter Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Julie Carr Smyth, author of Columbus, Ohio, contributed to the report.