Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Republicans’ gerrymander into law Friday, officially moving the redistricting battleground from the state capitol to the federal courthouse.
“Texas is now more red in the United States Congress,” Abbott said just after signing the bill, in a video posted on social media.
Voters and advocates wasted no time filing motions last week to block the map, asking a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction and order the state to use the 2021 map for next year’s election.
Republicans sped their gerrymander through an abbreviated redistricting process this summer at the request of the White House, which is pressuring red states to redraw maps to deliver a GOP congressional majority in 2026.
Four Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter last month to the federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC) asking for an investigation into whether senior officials in the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) violated the Hatch Act’s prohibition on impermissible partisan political activity.
Abbott called for a special session and put redistricting on the agenda citing “constitutional concerns” raised in a letter from the DOJ that claimed multiple Texas congressional districts needed to be redrawn. The DOJ did not comply with requests from Texas lawmakers to answer questions about the letter at redistricting committee meetings.
The passage of the map has reverberated far beyond Texas. California is fighting back with its own proposed map, which will be put to voters in November.