Texas Democrats Have A Plan To Disrupt The Trump-Approved Congressional Map

If everything goes Democrats’ way, Trump’s demands for five seats in Texas to mitigate losses elsewhere may not materialize.

Texas Republicans are on their way to enacting a new congressional district map ahead of the 2026 midterms that creates five new GOP seats: On Wednesday night, the Texas House approved a new set of district maps that strongly favor Republicans. The effort came at the insistence of an increasingly unpopular President Donald Trump, who pressured Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, to call a special session in order to eliminate Democratic seats in order to stop them from retaking the U.S. House next year.

But Texas Democrats see potential flaws in the new Republican maps — ones they hope to use to minimize losses with a targeted campaign in some of the new districts.

“The strategy behind this new map is based on two assumptions, both of which we think are incorrect,” said Katherine Fischer, director of Texas Majority PAC, a super PAC that works closely with the Texas Democratic Party in an effort to flip the state blue by 2032.

Those two assumptions are that Trump’s success in Texas in 2024 will automatically translate down ballot, and that Latino voters, who shifted heavily towards Republicans last year, will remain staunch GOP voters, according to a report by Texas Majority PAC released on Thursday.

Neither of those things are a given, Texas Majority PAC argues. Support for Trump, who has always been a fairly unique political figure, does not necessarily translate to support for Republican candidates running for U.S. Congress or state legislative seats.