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\n The outcome of the political battle over Texas\u2019 redistricting effort<\/a> is already having major implications across the country.\n <\/p>\n \n Other Republican-dominated states are considering following Texas\u2019 lead as Democratic governors weigh their options<\/a> to retaliate with their own mid-decade redistricting efforts. The Texas legislature, meanwhile, is at a standstill after House Democrats fled the state in a bid to block the Republican effort to redraw congressional districts in the GOP\u2019s favor.\n <\/p>\n \n President Donald Trump has pushed<\/a> the redistricting effort, and Gov. Greg Abbott called the 30-day special session in which the GOP unveiled proposed maps that could shift as many as five US House seats into the Republican column. Abbott is now threatening to remove the Democratic lawmakers who left the state in a bid to block the House from voting on those new maps.\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s a look at what\u2019s happening in Texas, and why it matters:\n <\/p>\n \n Congressional district lines are required to be redrawn once a decade, after the census. But mid-decade maneuvers like the one in Texas are unusual.\n <\/p>\n \n Texas Republicans want to pad the US House GOP majority ahead of next November\u2019s midterm elections by increasing the number of seats Democrats need to flip \u2014 currently three \u2014 to claim House control.\n <\/p>\n \n Democrats face a much stiffer challenge<\/a> in winning back the Senate. But if they win the House majority, it would give the party a foothold for Trump\u2019s final two years in office. Democrats could slow or halt the president\u2019s legislative agenda and use House committees to investigate his administration\u2019s actions, much as they did in the last two years of Trump\u2019s first term, from early 2019 to early 2021.\n <\/p>\n \n The proposed maps<\/a> unveiled last week by Texas\u2019 majority-Republican legislature would aggressively redraw the state\u2019s congressional districts to make five seats much more likely to favor GOP candidates.\n <\/p>\n \n The new Texas map features 30 districts that Trump would have won in 2024 if the map was in place, up from 27 under the current district lines. In total, there are five more seats that Trump won by more than 10 percentage points, according to data from the Texas Legislative Council.\n <\/p>\n \n The proposed map eliminates the seat of Rep. Greg Casar, who would likely be forced into a primary with another liberal Democrat, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, in the Austin area.\n <\/p>\n \n Republicans also propose merging the Houston-area seat of Rep. Al Green with a vacant seat held by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner<\/a>, who died in office earlier this year. Green\u2019s district was altered more than any other sitting member in the plan.\n <\/p>\n \n The map would also make two south Texas seats held by Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez more Republican-leaning. But multiple Democrats view the seats as still in reach for the two centrist members who typically performed ahead of statewide or national Democrats.\n <\/p>\n Democrats push back and search for payback<\/p>\n \n Democrats are in the minority in the Texas House, but they hold enough seats that they can deprive the chamber of the number of legislators necessary to do business under House rules. That\u2019s why many fled the state on Sunday, with most flying to Illinois and others traveling to New York, outside the reach of Texas law enforcement.\n <\/p>\n \n The departed lawmakers could face $500-a-day fines that can\u2019t be paid with campaign funds \u2014 though the House Democrats and their supporters are already raising money to help cover those fines. Former US Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke told CNN his political action committee, Powered By People, which raised more than $700,000 for state House Democrats during a quorum break<\/a> in 2021, will \u201craise whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to help these Texas Democrats with their lodging, with being able to feed themselves, supporting them with these $500-a-day fines.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have their backs all the way,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, Democratic governors in deep-blue states are plotting retribution. The governors of California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York have suggested they will explore redrawing their own congressional district maps to add more Democratic-leaning seats, or left the door open to doing so.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe gloves are off, and I say, bring it on,\u201d New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n Once a critical swing state, increasingly red Ohio is required to redraw its congressional districts this fall because the 2022 map was struck down as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. The makeup of the Buckeye State\u2019s high court has changed since that ruling, and the new court is seen as much more likely to green-light a map that favors Republicans, who hold 10 of the state\u2019s 15 congressional seats.\n <\/p>\n \n Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently floated the idea of a mid-cycle redistricting in his state, too. \u201cI think the state malapportioned,\u201d he told reporters in July, adding it would be \u201cappropriate to do a redistricting here in the mid-decade.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Punchbowl News<\/a> reported the White House is pushing Missouri to redraw its districts to target one of just two Democratic-held seats, that of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, in a state where the GOP holds the other six House seats. The White House has also urged Indiana to redraw districts in which Democrats hold two of nine seats. Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan\u2019s northwest Indiana district would likely be the target if the Hoosier State were to do so.\n <\/p>\n \n The redistricting battles cannot carry on without deadlines. In many states, including Texas, candidates must file for next year\u2019s primary ballots before the end of this year.\n <\/p>\n \n Abbott on Monday sought more extreme measures than daily $500 fines to try to force Democrats\u2019 hands or circumvent their quorum break.\n <\/p>\n \n He threatened to remove Democrats from the state House if they didn\u2019t return by 4 p.m. ET, when the legislature was scheduled to convene in Austin.\n <\/p>\n \n Abbott told Fox News that the Democratic lawmakers had \u201cabsconded\u201d from their responsibilities. \u201cI believe they have forfeited their seats in the state legislature because they\u2019re not doing the job they were elected to do,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Abbott Monday evening ordered the state\u2019s Department of Public Safety to arrest House Democrats who did not show up for the special legislative session. \u201cI ordered Texas DPS to arrest and return every derelict House Democrat to the Texas Capitol,\u201d Abbott said in a post on X. \u201cThis order will remain in effect until all missing Democrats are accounted for.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s unclear how the directive will work for lawmakers who are out of state.\n <\/p>\n \n Four years ago, Texas House Democrats used similar tactics<\/a> \u2014 bolting to Washington, DC, for six weeks as they blocked Abbott and Republicans\u2019 push to enact restrictive new voting laws during a special session.\n <\/p>\n![\"Illinois](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap25216120911568.jpg?c=original&q=w_860,c_fill\")
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