President Donald Trump sparked a national sprint to redistrict when he asked Texas Republicans to draw five more congressional seats for the GOP in their state ahead of next year's elections.
In response, Democratic and Republican leaders in at least seven other states have said they're open to moving their political lines in the fight over the U.S. House, but that means very different things in different places.
States are often bound by constitutional language and laws that dictate how redistricting happens. And time is running out for maps to be set ahead of the 2026 midterms.
To see how likely redistricting is before then, we asked reporters in the NPR Network to explain what's going on in their states.
More in California:
Texas
Blaise Gainey, The Texas Newsroom
Redistricting in Texas, the center of the fight, is far from over. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to pass a new congressional map ahead of the midterms at Trump's request. To stall that process, most House Democrats broke quorum by leaving the state and spreading out around the country. At some point, their return, and a vote on the map, is inevitable.
"When we first started this journey, we talked about the fact that eventually they still might pass these maps. But we're going to do everything we can to wake up America," said House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu this week.
While it's unclear when Democrats will return, Texas Republicans plan to end the current special session Friday and immediately begin a new one. Democrats are demanding the focus be on Hill Country Flood victims before lawmakers turn to the the political map, but Abbott already has said the agenda for the upcoming session will begin with redistricting.
Abbott responded to those demands on social media, calling it embarrassing and telling Democrats to "come back and fight like Texans."
California
Guy Marzorati, KQED
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is charging ahead with a plan to bring the redistricting fight directly to voters in a special election Nov. 4.
Newsom, with the support of Democrats in the state legislature, is looking to redraw California's congressional maps to help Democrats pick up five additional U.S. House seats. Californians handed line-drawing power to an independent commission more than a decade ago, so Newsom's plan can only move forward with voter approval.
The state legislature reconvenes Aug. 18, and lawmakers will have until Aug. 22 to place a redistricting measure on the ballot. The map that will go before voters is expected to be released later this week. Newsom said the new lines would only take effect if other Republican states continued with their gerrymandering efforts.
"It wasn't our decision to be here," Newsom said Friday. "We are trying to defend democracy as opposed to see it destroyed district by district."
Republicans, pro-democracy, and good government advocacy groups oppose Newsom's redistricting gambit. Former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who helped spearhead the move toward independent redistricting, is also opposed, spokesperson Daniel Ketchall told NPR.
Missouri
Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio
In Missouri, lawmakers could go back this fall to carve up Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based district. Contrary to some assumptions, Republicans have the ability to transform Cleaver's district into a solid Republican seat. Unlike the 1st Congressional District, it's not protected under the Voting Rights Act because it doesn't have a majority population of color.
Missouri Republicans have been upfront about their motivations: They want to prevent Democrats from taking over the U.S. House.
"The work that President Trump has done has turned our country back from the edge of the cliff that the Biden administration was driving us over," Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin, a Republican, wrote on Facebook.
But it's an open question whether any map would stand up to judicial scrutiny.
"The constitution requires that it be done after the decennial census, and it doesn't address whether it can be done at another time," says Jim Layton, a former Missouri solicitor general who defended the state's congressional maps in court back in the 2010s. "I would expect that someone would challenge the map, saying that under our constitution, there's only one chance after each census to create a new map."
Ohio
Sarah Donaldson, Ohio Statehouse News Bureau
Ohio is the only state due for a mid-decade redraw of its congressional lines. That's because 2018 reforms require both parties to agree on the map, which they didn't do last redistricting cycle. That's why national Republicans are eyeing Ohio for gains of two to three seats.
Among the districts to watch are Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Emilia Sykes, both of whom were already national targets because of narrow 2024 margins. Kaptur won by less than 1% in 2024. To get another possible win, Republicans would have to draw the city of Cincinnati into a red district, which is a heavier lift.
The Ohio Constitution says a 60% majority of the legislature must pass its redistricting plan by the end of September. If they can't come to a consensus, the Ohio Redistricting Commission takes over.
"It's just a question of whether the parties can pass something in a bipartisan fashion," House Speaker Matt Huffman said in June.
The commission, which would include seven politicians and skew heavily Republican, faces a final deadline in November. The state's highest court rejected its maps more than once in 2021. Right now, Ohio has 10 GOP and five Democratic seats in Congress.
New York
Jimmy Vielkind, WNYC
The New York state Constitution prohibits gerrymandering and specifies that redistricting takes place once a decade, after the release of the U.S. census. Someone would have to successfully sue to invalidate the current map to begin the process sooner, according to state Sen. Michael Gianaris.
So instead, the Democrat from Queens has introduced a resolution to amend the state constitution. Constitutional amendments need to be passed by two successively elected crops of state lawmakers, then approved by voters. That process couldn't be completed until 2027 at the earliest, but Gianaris says it's still worth doing.
"I don't think this is a one-off, that Texas is doing this now and we won't hear about it again," he says. "I think it would make sense for New York to change our process so we can be players."
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is exploring all her options. The Democratic governor says she wants to abolish the state's Independent Redistricting Commission and give more control to Democratic leaders.
There are 19 Democrats and seven Republicans in the state's U.S. House delegation. The congressional map was drawn by a court-appointed special master after Republicans sued to throw out a Democrat-drawn map.
Illinois
Alex Degman, WBEZ
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker continues to leave the door open to redistricting the state's congressional map as he hosts more than two dozen Texas House Democrats in suburban Chicago.
"Sure, we could redistrict. It's possible," he said Monday. But finding another Democratic seat in Illinois is a tall order.
Illinois lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census due to population decline. Democrats drew the map to edge out two Republicans and form a new Democratic-leaning district. The state's congressional delegation has 14 Democrats and 3 Republicans. The three GOP districts are heavily Republican — two of them voted for Trump by more than 40 points in the 2024 election.
Political challenges aside, congressional candidates have until Nov. 3 to file to run in their districts, so a new map would need to be approved before then.
Illinois state lawmakers don't seem on board yet — leaders in both the Illinois House and Senate say there are no current discussions about redistricting.
House Republican Leader Tony McCombie doesn't think Pritzker has the political power to force it, noting Democratic supermajorities have already stymied a couple of his legislative priorities.
"If [Illinois House] Speaker [Emanuel Chris] Welch wants to do it, then it will be done," she says.
Indiana
Brandon Smith, Indiana Public Broadcasting
Vice President J.D. Vance came to Indianapolis last week to meet with Republican Gov. Mike Braun and Republican state legislative leaders to discuss redrawing Indiana's congressional district lines to benefit Republicans.
Braun said he and state legislative leaders "listened" but wouldn't say more than that.
Article 4, Section 5, of the Indiana Constitution limits redistricting of Indiana's maps for the state legislature to the year or two after the decennial census.
But it is state law that limits redrawing Indiana's congressional district lines to the first regular legislative session after the census, though the Republican supermajority could more easily change that than the state constitution.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat and one of the legislators who could lose a seat, called on state GOP leaders not to "bend a knee."
"And no matter what district they put me in, I will fight for working-class people," Mrvan said.
Florida
Regan McCarthy, WFSU
In Florida, state House Speaker Daniel Perez is forming a select committee on redistricting. The group will focus on questions surrounding the so-called Fair Districts Amendments in the state constitution.
The amendments, passed in 2010, prohibit political gerrymandering and specify that a district cannot be drawn to deny minorities the ability to "elect representatives of their choice." That played a central role in a lawsuit against the state's congressional map passed in 2022.
That map, pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, split up a North Florida district held by a Black Democrat. Under the new map, Republicans were successful in winning the seat. Last month, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the political boundaries and found that the old district likely constituted race-based gerrymandering, violating federal equal rights protections. The ruling has led to questions about the future enforceability of the amendments — something Perez says the committee will look into.
DeSantis told reporters he thinks other parts of the current congressional map could have similar racial gerrymandering issues.
Meanwhile, Democrats are decrying the effort. Democratic state Rep. Michele Rayner said in a statement she thinks, "The speaker and our legislative leadership are playing a dangerous game with our democracy."
This story was edited by Acacia Squires, senior editor on the NPR States Team.
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