Republicans in the Texas legislature are pushing forward with their plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps in order to flip several seats currently held by Democrats. On Saturday, a committee in the state house of representatives approved the new maps. 

Governor Abbott in early July called the legislature into a special session in order to redraw the maps “in light of constitutional concerns” raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, said in a letter that Texas should redraw the maps, giving the state legal cover to go forward with the changes. 

On Saturday, a committee voted to advance the bill after hearing from the public for more than 12 hours. Lawmakers voted along party lines to move the new congressional maps to the next step of the process. The new district lines could come up for a vote in the legislature as soon as Monday. 

“This is nothing more than a rigged map,” said the top Democrat on the committee, state representative Jon Rosenthal. “This is going to create a ripple effect around the country. What we do here will affect what happens in the United States of America.”

President Trump has personally pushed Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional lines so they can pick up at least five seats in next year’s mid-terms. The map making its way through the legislative process creates five new districts in areas where Mr. Trump won by 10 points or more in the 2024 election. 

“Anybody who’s not a politician should just look at these maps,” Congressman Greg Casar said at the committee hearing, calling the process “a joke.” Mr. Casar was seated beside several of his Democratic colleagues in the House, including Congressman Al Greene, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. 

“It’s clear to me that these maps aren’t drawn by anybody from Texas,” he said. “It’s clear that somebody at Mar-a-Lago drew these maps.”

Ms. Crockett, whose district would remain solidly blue under the new maps, said she will lead a legal challenge to the district changes if Mr. Abbott signs them into law. Democrats have said Republicans are pursuing the redistricting only because Mr. Trump’s party is on track to lose a number of seats in the 2026 midterms. 

“The only reason that you would have a map that looks this absurd is because you have an extremely unpopular president that knows nothing about Texas who is sending a map here,” Mr. Casar said. 

If the changes are adopted, Mr. Casar will be forced to run against a fellow Democrat, Congressman Lloyd Doggett, in the 2026 Democratic primary. Mr. Doggett attended the hearing with Mr. Casar and the other House members. 

The Republican effort to redraw Texas’s maps threatens to prompt retaliatory redistricting efforts across the country. Governor Newsom, who is not being shy about his desire to run for president in 2028, says he is prepared to redraw his own state’s congressional maps in order to lock Republicans out of their seats. The California governor said at a recent news conference that he is “going to fight fire with fire” if necessary. 

California’s maps are currently drawn by a bipartisan, independent redistricting commission. In order to take power from that body and give it to the supermajority Democratic legislature, Mr. Newsom would have to hold a statewide vote. 

“We will go to the people of this state in a transparent way and ask them to consider the new circumstances, to consider these new realities,” Mr. Newsom told reporters at Sacramento on Thursday, according to the non-profit news outlet CalMatters. 

“This is not going to be done in a back room. This is not going to be done by members of some private group or body,” the governor said. “It’s going to be given to the voters for their consideration in a very transparent way so they know exactly what they’re doing.”