Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that the state legislature will prioritize redistricting during a special session later this year, a move with major implications for the 2026 midterm elections as Republicans seek to protect their narrow House majority.
In a press release outlining several legislative priorities, Abbott emphasized that lawmakers will focus on crafting “legislation that provides a revised congressional redistricting plan in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
The announcement follows a letter from the Trump administration’s DOJ civil rights division, which expressed “serious concerns” about the legality of four Texas congressional districts. The DOJ labeled Districts TX-09, TX-18, TX-29, and TX-33 as unconstitutional “coalition districts” and urged Texas to remove race-based considerations from these maps.
The DOJ’s letter referenced the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. Milligan, which found Alabama had likely violated the Voting Rights Act by using racial gerrymandering. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion stressed that race-based redistricting authority cannot extend indefinitely and must be temporary.
Additionally, the letter cited Perry v. Galveston County, clarifying that “coalition districts” do not receive protection under the Voting Rights Act unless the minority group is geographically compact enough to form a majority within a district. The DOJ concluded that Texas’s current districts are “vestiges of an unconstitutional racially based gerrymandering past” and must be corrected. This development comes as Republicans also scored a win in Wisconsin, where the state Supreme Court rejected a Democrat-backed redistricting effort expected to favor Democrats in 2026.
