Topline
The Texas Senate passed a bill creating new congressional districts designed to eliminate five districts held by Democrats, sending the bill to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to end a weeks-long battle that has since sparked retaliation as California Gov. Gavin Newsom leads an effort to redraw his state’s districts in response.
Texas Republicans passed the map early on Saturday morning after a failed filibuster attempt from Democrats.
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Key Facts
The Texas Senate voted 18-11 along party lines to approve the bill around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, just days after the Texas House of Representatives approved the map on a similar 88-52 party line vote.
The bill will now go to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to sign into law, and the governor has previously expressed support for the redistricting effort.
“The One Big Beautiful Map has passed the Senate,” Abbott said in a statement posted on social media, decrying the Democrats’ “petty stunts” and stating he would sign it into law.
The redrawn districts could help Republicans pick up as many as five more House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
State Sen. Phil King, a Republican who sponsored the bill, has repeatedly defended the new map as a means to improve “political performance” for his party, and claimed they had “no reason to look at racial data.”
Democrats are promising to further challenge the new map, with Rep. Gene Wu, the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, insisting they are “not done fighting” and that the “next step is the courts.”
The quick passage comes only days after California’s legislature passed a bill that would seek approval for a new congressional map from voters in November, the first state leading the Democrats’ efforts to combat the Republicans’ redistricting.
Surprising Fact
State Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Democrat representing a district in Houston, planned to filibuster the bill and speak for hours to delay its passage. Republicans used a procedural maneuver, however, to block the filibuster. State Sen. Charles Perry accused Alvarado of violating rules by sending a fundraising email before the filibuster, the Washington Post reported. Republicans then quickly called for a vote, passing the bill around 12:30 a.m. “They created an excuse to shut it down,” Alvarado said in a video posted on social media. “What we have seen in this redistricting process has been maneuvers and mechanisms to shut down people’s voices,” she continued.
Key Background
States typically redraw their congressional districts every 10 years after the census. However, Texas Republicans, who control majorities in the state legislature and the governorship, made the rare choice to pursue mid-decade redistricting after pressure from President Donald Trump in an effort to help Republicans maintain their razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. In response, Texas Democrats fled the state to deny Republicans quorum in the legislature, effectively freezing the redistricting efforts for weeks. The Democrats accrued fines and faced legal pressure from Republicans before returning last week.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk/2025/08/23/texas-senate-passes-new-congressional-map-sending-bill-to-abbotts-desk/
