Texas is on its way to gerrymandering its own gerrymander. On Saturday, Republicans on the state house of representatives’ redistricting committee approved a new plan to add five Republican seats—part of a radical mid-decade scheme to help Republicans keep control of the US House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections. The plan could go to a full vote in the chamber early next week, after which it will move on to the Republican-controlled state senate.
I know but comment I replied to sounded surprised that Texas is redistricting again since the 2000s. So I was pointing out we’ve already done so twice since then as a matter of standard practice. Doing it a second time in the same decade is unusually fast, doing it again 20+ years later is totally normal.
The 2003 redistricting was also out of cycle. This isn’t the second time in 20 years, it’s the fifth time in 30 years, which is a bit weird.