Maps show how Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana and Utah redistricting could affect congressional seats
North Carolina is the latest state to join a mid-decade redistricting gambit that could shake up next year's midterms — following similar moves by Missouri, Texas and California to redraw their congressional maps, and a separate court-ordered effort in Utah.
The redistricting push began when President Trump last summer pressed Texas Republicans to redistrict and increase the number of GOP seats. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation in August to redraw the districts and create five GOP-friendly seats, launching the first salvo in a battle that has spread to other states.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in turn, launched an effort to redraw California's map to help Democrats. In November, the plan was approved by voters by a 29-point margin.
In Missouri, state lawmakers redrew their map in September to squeeze Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver from his Kansas City district. Then in October, North Carolina state Republicans redrew the 1st Congressional District, held by a Democrat, to make it more favorable to conservatives.
In Indiana, despite their initial reluctance, lawmakers reconvened in December to redraw their congressional map, aiming to create two more Republican seats and change their U.S. House delegation from 7-2 to 9-0.
Utah lawmakers also reworked their state's map after a judge ruled the current districts violated restrictions on gerrymandering. All four of the state's House districts are represented by Republicans, but a judge in November threw out the GOP-controlled legislature's map and ordered one that will create a Democratic-leaning district in Salt Lake City.
Challenges remain in all states that are redoing their maps. In Texas, a federal court blocked the state from using the newly redrawn map in the upcoming midterm elections. The NAACP filed a lawsuit challenging Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe's authority to create Missouri's new map outside of a census year, and three other lawsuits have been filed. Despite getting the seal of approval by voters in California, state Republicans filed a lawsuit against Prop 50 after Election Day.
Congressional maps are normally redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census reveals population shifts. But this rare mid-decade redistricting push was kicked off as Republicans seek to maintain — or even expand — their razor-thin majority in Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Historically speaking, midterms are often a rebuke of the party in the White House.
Abbott then called a special session of the Legislature with redistricting on the agenda. But two weeks into the 30-day special session, Texas Democrats fled the state to deny a quorum and prevent the legislation from coming to the floor.
The Democrats ultimately returned after two weeks, and the legislation was passed, but they garnered significant national attention. Although California requires congressional maps to be approved by voters, Newsom vowed to redraw the state's districts to garner up to five seats for Democrats to counter Texas.
Amid this push, other states have also started to discuss redistricting efforts, including Indiana and Florida, which could net Republicans several more seats.
Although both parties are trying to rig their states' congressional districts to be favorable to themselves, the outcome is far from guaranteed.
"Computers and technology do give us a lot more ability to to make predictive statements about outcomes, but we're doing it — I think it's fair to say — in a very volatile environment politically, where things that we have seen as trends are sort of being turned on their heads," said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based the Brennan Center for Justice.
Crayton noted several current issues that could factor heavily into voters' decisions, and called it "folly to assume that just because people showed up and voted for the current president of the United States, that people want to show up for a member of Congress, particularly … a new candidate in a district that hasn't been created before."
See maps of how Texas, California and Missouri's push could play out, based on the 2024 election results:
Texas has 38 congressional seats, with 25 held by Republicans and 13 by Democrats.
Republicans have invested heavily in the Rio Grande Valley, once a Democratic stronghold, but they've made inroads. In 2024, two of the three Rio Grande Valley House seats voted for Mr. Trump, though they reelected their Democratic congressional representatives. The maps were designed to increase those gains and box out the two Democrats.
Texas Democrats have recently made gains in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Houston's Harris County. The new maps reshape Democratic Rep. Al Green's Houston district in the rural areas, making a district that was 72% Democratic into one that is 40% Democratic. The proposed map also changes Rep. Julie Johnson's Dallas-area district from 62% to 41% Democratic. Rep. Marc Veasey's district in Dallas-Fort Worth remains a Democratic stronghold, but he would no longer live in the district.
Liberal Austin is further dissolved into neighboring districts. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who was first elected in 1994 and whose district gave former Vice President Kamala Harris her largest margin of victory in all of Texas, announced in August that he would not seek reelection if the proposed maps are upheld by the courts, avoiding a primary with Rep. Greg Casar, also of Austin.
On Nov. 18, a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court in El Paso blocked Texas from using the maps approved by the legislature in August. The court said that the plaintiffs will likely succeed in showing that race predominated over partisanship in the map-making process, and said the legislature appears to have set and followed a racial target.
California has 52 House representatives, with nine Republicans and 43 Democrats.
In 2020, Republicans flipped three seats held by Democrats for the first time since 1994. They've hung onto two of them, including GOP Rep. David Valadao's 22nd District in the Central Valley.
Under the proposed map, Valadao's district would go from being 47% Democratic in 2024 to 49% Democratic, making him slightly more vulnerable. And GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's 48th District near San Diego would change from 42% to 52% Democratic.
In Southern California, Rep. Ken Calvert's 41st District in Riverside would be redrawn further toward Los Angeles, shifting it from a district that was 47% Democratic in 2024 to one that is 57% Democratic under the proposed maps.
In Northern California, GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa's District 1, which includes the northeastern-most part of the state, would shift further south toward Marin County and the northern part would be absorbed in the 2nd District, home to heavily Democratic Eureka and the northern Pacific coast. Rep. Kevin Kiley's district, which snakes along the California-Nevada border through Death Valley, would instead move further toward heavily Democratic Sacramento. Republican Rep. Tom McClintock's 5th District would be shifted to include the southern portions of what was Kiley's district.
Kiley, whose district would go from one that was 48% Democratic in 2024 to one that is 55% Democratic, has been an outspoken critic of redistricting, even introducing legislation in the House to ban mid-decade redistricting.
After Texas and California's redistricting efforts, Gov. Kehoe called a special session of Missouri's legislature to take up redistricting. Missouri currently has two Democratic representatives in Congress: Rep. Wesley Bell, who represents St. Louis and was first elected in 2025, and Cleaver, who has represented the Kansas City area since 2005.
As Missouri has trended toward Republicans over the past 20 years, Cleaver's district has been a target of the GOP, especially in the 2021 redistricting when several lawmakers pushed for what was called the "7 to 1 map" that would have redrawn the 5th Congressional District to be more Republican. Lawmakers ultimately decided against that plan. St. Louis' NPR station reported that Republicans worried that the short-term gains from carving up the district could lead to long-term problems in the neighboring suburban districts.
Nonetheless, the Missouri GOP joined the redistricting effort in 2025. Under the new map, Cleaver's district transforms from one that is 62% Democratic to one that is 41% Democratic. Cleaver says he still plans to run for reelection.
The neighboring 4th and 6th Districts both become slightly bluer, to 39% and 36% Democratic, respectively, but they are still safely Republican.
By expanding the 2nd District south and west, GOP Rep. Ann Wagner's district becomes redder, going from 46% Democratic in 2024 to 44%. While Wagner has maintained her grip on the district, Mr. Trump won by only 100 votes under the previous lines in 2020. In the 2021 redistricting, Wagner's district lost some of the Democratic-leaning St. Louis County.
North Carolina has 14 congressional seats, 10 of which are held by Republicans. But the state is not as solidly red as that breakdown would suggest — it's closer to a 50/50 state at the presidential level these days, and the state's governor and attorney general are both Democrats.
In the redistricting push undertaken this fall, North Carolina Republicans are targeting a single seat: Rep. Don Davis' 1st Congressional District. Davis' win in 2024 in the northeastern part of the state was a rare bright spot for Democrats, especially after Republicans were able to flip congressional three seats in North Carolina that year.
In the map passed by the North Carolina Assembly on Oct. 21 and 22, Davis' district boundaries move further south, into the current 3rd District. That changes the makeup of the district from one that was 48% Democratic to one that is 44% Democratic.
Indiana state lawmakers initially resisted the Trump administration's pressure to redraw their map to edge out the two Democratic seats. When Republican Gov. Mike Braun called a special session in November, Senate President Rodric Bray said publicly the votes weren't there, and when the legislature convened, it only agreed to meet again in January for the regular session.
But lawmakers reversed course in November and said they would reconvene take up redistricting. On Dec. 1, Indiana House Republicans unveiled their proposed map, which significantly changes the boundaries of District 1 and District 7.
In the proposed map, District 1, which includes Gary, Indiana, and other Chicago suburbs, is redrawn so voters are spread through Districts 2 and 4. All three districts are between 40-44% Democratic under the proposed map. The map would also break up the heavily Democratic District 7, which currently includes most of Indianapolis and backed Harris with 71% of its vote. It would be split, with its population absorbed into several Republican districts.
There are still several GOP holdouts in the Indiana Senate. The contentious debate over redistricting has led to threats against bomb threats and swatting attempts against lawmakers, the FBI said. But Braun, who has also been targeted, posted on social media in November that he told Mr. Trump that he's "committed" to pursuing redistricting.
Utah redistricting
Utah differs from the other states here, among other reasons, because there are no Democrats among the four members of its congressional delegation. And its 2025 redistricting effort was put in motion when a judge ruled the current districts violated a voter-approved measure to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
The GOP-controlled legislature produced four maps for public comment, and on Oct. 6, approved a map that would be the least competitive for Democrats. The legislature proposed a map that would split Salt Lake County into two districts, which would make Districts 2 and 3 more competitive for Democrats.
But a district court judge in Utah on Nov. 10 rejected redistricting maps selected by the Republican-controlled legislature and instead selected a map that would create a Democratic-leaning congressional district in Salt Lake City. The map approved by the legislature "does not comply with Utah law," wrote 3rd District Court Judge Dianna Gibson in her opinion. She continued that "based on the evidence presented," the legislature's map "unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats."
The maps enacted by Gibson create a new district encompassing Salt Lake City that would be 62% Democratic, based on the 2024 presidential results.