Led by Trump, Republicans push to redraw election maps in multiple states

Republicans are exploring ways to redraw congressional maps in their favor well beyond Texas as President Donald Trump pushes for aggressive changes, worrying some in the party who have little appetite for an escalating redistricting war with Democrats.

The White House has been driving the GOP redistricting effort, according to people familiar with the process, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Republicans are discussing ways to create new red seats in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio ahead of next year’s midterm elections and carve out as many as five in Florida, even as they face legal hurdles.

A White House spokesperson said staffers have not drawn any maps. John McLaughlin, one of Trump’s pollsters, said the president doesn’t want to risk facing Democratic-led investigations, as he previously did, if the party retakes control of Congress.

“After everything he’s been through, I don’t think he wants to leave anything to chance that would allow his opponents to do what they did to him in the first term and in the subsequent years,” McLaughlin said.

Some elected Republicans are skeptical of the push to redraw, concerned about Democratic retaliation in blue states and hesitant to shake up long-standing lines. In GOP-controlled Indiana – where Vice President JD Vance met Thursday with state leaders and discussed redistricting – many Republican state lawmakers are unenthusiastic about the idea, according to a GOP legislator who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.

“There’s not much interest at this point,” the legislator said, though perhaps minds could change “with the right influence campaign.” If blue states retaliate to negate GOP gains in red ones, the person added, “what are you really going to gain?”

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Trump ally, said Thursday on Fox News that his state has “become more Republican over time, and these maps probably need to be looked at,” even as he acknowledged a redraw not tied to a new census would be “unusual.” Asked after his meeting with Vance whether they had “come to any agreement,” Braun told reporters that “we listened.”

Other Republicans around the country have eagerly jumped into the fight, calling for changes ahead of next year’s midterms to protect the GOP’s narrow U.S. House majority and, by extension, Trump’s agenda.

In Missouri, “there is a very high likelihood that this is going to get done,” said Gregg Keller, a longtime Republican strategist based in the state. “It is a top priority at the White House at the highest possible levels.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is jockeying for support from the GOP base in a tough primary ahead of 2026, on Thursday said that FBI Director Kash Patel had granted his request for the agency to “assist” Texas law enforcement in tracking down statehouse Democrats who fled the state this week to stall redistricting. “We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,” Cornyn said. The FBI declined to comment. It was not clear what, if any, specific plans federal agents had to engage in the situation.

Trump’s push to squeeze more red seats out of Texas has set off a nationwide scramble, with both parties looking to recast the electoral map in their favor ahead of the 2026 elections. With Republicans defending a 219-212 House majority with four vacancies, even a small change in the number of competitive districts could shift the balance of power.

States normally draw new congressional districts once a decade, after each census, but Texas moved to change the lines ahead of schedule, triggering a cascade of similar efforts. Ohio – where some Republicans have expressed interest in a more favorable map – was already set to redraw its districts this year.

The White House began contacting officials in Texas in the spring to ask about the process of redistricting, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations. Those talks occurred after the legislature’s mid-March bill-filing deadline, preventing the legislature from considering it during the regular session and delaying public talks about it. Trump spoke later with Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state House Speaker Dustin Burrows, all Republicans, about adding five safe GOP seats.

Dave Carney, a veteran Republican strategist who advises Abbott, said there were no downsides to creating a more favorable map.

“We should maximize our opportunities where it’s legal to do,” Carney said.

A Texas Senate committee voted 6-1 on Thursday to advance the redistricting legislation. “My first objective is to create a plan that elects more Republicans to the U.S. Congress,” Republican Sen. Phil King , who leads the redistricting committee, said ahead of the vote.

Democrats have railed against the plan. “Our state’s leadership is trying to redraw congressional lines in the middle of a decade with no new census, no new data and no legitimate reason except to serve one man’s political ambition – Donald Trump,” Texas state Democratic Sen. Carol Alvarado said at a news conference Wednesday, warning that what was happening would not be a “one-off.”

In Missouri, Keller said, redistricting is likely to be taken up during the legislature’s annual veto session, which is set for early September. The new maps under discussion would target Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II , according to a person with knowledge of the emerging redistricting plans.

“They could care less about legality; only what Trump wants,” Cleaver said.

Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., came out this week in support of redistricting to add GOP representation, and the state’s Senate leader, a Republican, said it was likely that the issue would be brought before the legislature. Wagner is the most vulnerable Republican in the delegation.

Her district would probably move south and incorporate more GOP-leaning counties around St. Louis, the person with knowledge of the tentative plans said.

In Florida, Republicans have already changed the maps in their favor in recent years. Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed reluctant GOP state lawmakers to redraw their lines more aggressively in 2022, helping his party net four more seats.

Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez on Thursday told state lawmakers he is creating a “select committee” on congressional redistricting. DeSantis and the state Senate also appear willing to pursue a redraw, according to a person familiar with GOP discussions, who said Republican leaders believe they could add two or three red U.S. House seats at a minimum. DeSantis has said he is looking “very seriously” at the matter.

But Florida Republicans face a legal hurdle: a “Fair Districts” amendment to the Florida Constitution that says districts may not be drawn to favor a political party.

“I don’t know the legal basis on which redistricting could be done,” Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., said in an interview Wednesday. “They would have to pass maps that they knew were unconstitutional under the Florida state constitution, hoping that some other court I guess would invalidate the Florida Constitution.”

Perez on Thursday noted that the state Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the current maps based on the Fair District amendment’s rules related to representation for minorities. Republicans have pointed to that case and suggested the Fair District rules are unconstitutional. Perez said in a letter to lawmakers that the House could “seek legal guidance” from the state Supreme Court.

Changes to the maps in Florida and other states could also be disruptive for some Republican incumbents.

“I’d like to stick with what I got here,” Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., told the local news outlet Florida Politics recently.

Republicans in California could lose out as Democrats there push for new blue seats in retaliation against Texas Republicans. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., one of several members whom California Democrats may target, called this week on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to “bring this chaos to an end.”

“The speaker needs to step up and show some leadership here because even our own members in states that might in some theoretical way, mathematical way, stand to benefit from new maps, they don’t like what’s going on either,” Kiley said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “They don’t like the prospect of having their district broken up or having communities they’ve represented, been voted in by, taken out of their district.”

In New York, GOP Rep. Michael Lawler said he opposes Texas Republicans’ push for an advantage. He argued that Democrats have already disadvantaged the GOP and are now using the Texas drama as “cover” to attempt to change their maps.

“I have been very consistent in this,” Lawler said in an interview. “I fundamentally believe that gerrymandering is part of the, one of the biggest reasons why Congress is dysfunctional because you don’t have enough competitive districts.”

Other Republicans are eager to get involved. Rep. Ralph Norman , R-S.C., who is running for governor and faces a tough primary, joined the fray Wednesday by calling on his red state to redraw its map and push out the lone Democratic House member, Rep. James E. Clyburn.

“Jim Clyburn is a nice man and I respect him,” Norman said in a statement. “But he is a liberal Democrat who helped put Joe Biden in the White House. That’s not the kind of representation South Carolina needs.”