CNN
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Facing the possibility of losing control of the U.S. House next year, Republicans are weighing aggressively redrawing congressional districts in two states in hopes of ousting several longtime Democratic lawmakers.
In Ohio, a quirk in state law is giving Republican state legislators another run at drawing new lines for the state’s 15 congressional districts. The goal would be to knock off two Democratic members of the House, giving the GOP a 12-3 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. State lawmakers could go even further and target a third Democratic seat.
In Texas, meanwhile, Republicans are considering whether to hold a special legislative session to undertake a rare mid-decade map-drawing that supporters hope could result in the GOP picking up as many as five additional seats.
Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win the House, raising the stakes for Republicans and President Donald Trump, who could see a Democrat-led House block his legislative agenda and open new investigations of him in the second half of his final term.
But redistricting is a double-edged sword: In drawing new lines, both states could also endanger GOP lawmakers by moving safe Republican territory into districts currently represented by Democrats.
Adam Kincaid, president and executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, favors an aggressive redistricting approach.
“It’s a priority to keep the House, and Republicans should be looking for as many seats as we can get,” he said.
The GOP’s redistricting gains in 2022 were key to the party flipping the chamber in that election and retaining their majority in 2024, he added.
“There were a handful of seats that weren’t politically possible to get before that may be possible now,” he added. “It makes sense for Republicans to try ahead of 2026.”
Redrawing maps is potentially risky for GOP incumbents if 2026 proves to be a favorable year for Democrats. Republicans will have to run in a year when Trump himself is not the ballot, helping to boost conservative turnout.
“It’s both a gamble and an opportunity,” said Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter published by University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “From the White House’s perspective, would an aggressive Texas redraw increase their chances of holding the House next year? Yeah, probably. But it wouldn’t guarantee anything.”
Redistricting generally happens at the start of each decade to account for population shifts and ensure that each congressional and state legislative district holds roughly the same number of people.
Some Democrats have denounced the potential rounds of mid-decade map-drawing, arguing that Republicans are trying to rig the process.
“Republicans are exploring further manipulation of egregious gerrymanders in red states like Texas and Ohio for one reason: they are terrified of the voters,” said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, in a statement. “It’s a brazenly corrupt attempt to shield themselves from accountability at the ballot box and it must be stopped.”
A third redistricting battle, meanwhile, is playing out in Wisconsin where two legal actions filed last month are challenging a congressional map that favors Republicans in a battleground state that’s narrowly divided along partisan lines. Both cases are before the state Supreme Court, which has a liberal majority.
All but one Republican member of the Texas congressional delegation won their seats with more than 60% of the vote last November. All 25 GOP-held districts voted for Trump by at least 15 points in 2024, Kondik noted.
A new GOP map in Texas is likely to shift voters from safely red districts into ones held by Democrats to help boost the number of Republicans that Texas sends to Congress. Currently, under a 2021 map, Republicans control 25 of the state’s 38 House seats. (One safely Democratic seat in the Houston area is vacant following the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner. The current Texas congressional maps are the subject of litigation brought by groups representing Black and Latino voters who contend the lines drawn in 2021 discriminate against voters of color.)
Clear targets include Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who represent border communities that have shifted to the right in recent years. Trump won both districts in 2024, part of a broader realignment among Latino voters.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, argued recently that an aggressive redraw could backfire on Republicans.
“If you make any changes to that map … they are going to endanger four to six Republican incumbents who are serving in the Congress right now,” he said to reporters. “Be careful what you wish for.”
Other Democrats have condemned any effort to change the district lines to further benefit the GOP.
“Texas Republicans should stand by the rule of law and the maps they drew four years ago, or they should finally work with Democrats to draw fair, independent congressional maps,” state Rep. Gene Wu, who chairs the Democratic caucus in the Texas House, said in a statement. “Anything less is a desperate power grab from a party that knows Texas voters are ready to show them the door.”
The White House did not respond to a CNN inquiry about the effort, which has been the subject of recent closed-door meetings in Washington among members of the state’s congressional delegation.
The state legislature, which finished its regular session earlier this month, is not scheduled to meet again until 2027. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to call special sessions and determine the issues lawmakers will address.
Aides to the Texas governor did not respond to CNN inquiries.
Last week, Abbott told reporters that he had not “identified a need for a special session,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
The governor, however, did not close the door on the possibility, saying he was reviewing bills from the regular legislative session that could result in vetoes that would require him to summon lawmakers back to Austin to address outstanding matters.
Abbott also declined to tell journalists whether Trump had asked him to order a redraw.
In Ohio, the mid-decade redrawing of its congressional districts is an outgrowth of a state law that requires maps approved without bipartisan support to be redrawn after four years. Crafting new maps for next year’s midterms will ultimately fall to the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
The current map, crafted by a GOP-led legislature in 2022, has 10 Republicans and five Democrats.
Two Democratic incumbents are viewed as likely targets of the GOP: Reps. Marcy Kaptur, a veteran lawmaker who represents northwestern Ohio, and Emilia Skyes, whose district includes Akron.
Last year, Kaptur eked out a win even as her district went for Trump. Skyes, meanwhile, represents a highly competitive district that former Vice President Kamala Harris barely won.
If Republicans choose an even more aggressive approach, a third Democrat, Rep. Greg Landsman, who represents Cincinnati, could be endangered.
State lawmakers and a redistricting commission are expected to take turns trying to craft a map with the goal of winning bipartisan support for the new lines. But, in the end, the state legislature has the power to approve a partisan map by a simple majority vote.
