Nov. 18 (UPI) -- A federal court ordered Texas on Tuesday to throw out its redrawn Republican-friendly congressional maps for the 2026 election after finding it constituted an illegal racial gerrymander.
The 2-1 order by the three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court of Western Texas is a significant setback for Republicans after they pushed through an unusual redistricting of Texas' congressional seats to insulate their slim House majority ahead of next year's midterms.
President Donald Trump openly urged Texas state lawmakers to adopt the new congressional map in order to help the party's prospects in Washington. Democratic lawmakers responded by fleeing the state in what was ultimately an unsuccessful attempt to deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass the new maps.
State Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat who led the quorum break, welcomed the court's ruling in a post on X.
Related
