Name: Court blocks Texas from using new congressional map for 2026 elections
Uploaded: 2025-11-18T20:25:31.324Z
Duration: 4 min 1 s
Description: A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas from using a new congressional map in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. CBS News political reporter Hunter Woodall has more.

A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas from using a new congressional map in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. CBS News political reporter Hunter Woodall has more.

Texas

A federal court panel in Texas has ruled by a 2-1 margin to block the state's newly redrawn congressional map from being used in the 2026 elections, citing concerns about racial demographics in the redistricting process. Instead, Texas will revert to using its 2021 district lines for the upcoming midterms.

The blocked map, signed into law earlier in the year, would have potentially given Republicans a chance to gain five additional seats in Congress. The decision, influenced by a Department of Justice letter highlighting racial concerns, is expected to be appealed and has major implications for the narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House.

Court blocks Texas from using new congressional map for 2026 elections

Got some big breaking news out of the state of Texas. A panel of judges on a federal court have ruled against against using that highly controversial redrawn Congressional map in the Lone Star State this ahead of next year's midterm elections. Instead, lawmakers will use the lines drawn back in 2021. Now those maps signed into law this year would have given Republicans in the state of Texas a shot at picking up five more seats in Congress. Lost to break apart here live to CBS News politics reporter Hunter Woodall. So Hunter, this is a huge development because this was a hard fought battle in the state of Texas. We saw all of the drama that happened leading up to it, but I would imagine that California and other states looking to redraw their maps are watching this ruling closely. Read this is a massive ruling. It has truly tremendous implications for next year's midterms. I've been reading through the pages before we started talking, and what's clear here is obviously this this panel of judges to. It was a two to one decision. They have ruled against the Texas map that would have essentially helped Republicans have a good shot at winning five congressional seats. They're currently held by Democrats under the old lines. Now all everything here. The Texas was the center point of all the redistricting tensions that spilled out across the nation so far. This year, that's why you've seen California redraw its maps and then other states in response to California. And likewise, so this decision that Texas, the US House has incredibly narrow majority of House Republicans right now. The implications are massive for what this could mean for the midterms and for control of the US House. Already Democrats are touting this ruling, celebrating this ruling, but I think you're likely to see Republicans very upset by what the judges are saying here, right? And on what grounds? Because of course, a lot of people who were against the redrawing of maps in the state of Texas said it was done to sort of deflate the power of black and brown voters in the state of Texas in California. Legal action taken against California's effort is that the maps were drawn to favor Latino voters. So on what grounds are you seeing that these panel of judges made this ruling today? One of the critical moments we're seeing here there's a letter from the Department of Justice at the the court filing talks about coming in July and they cite this letter as being a critical part of their decision and I'm quoting now from from the ruling. They say that the DOJ letter that was urging Texas to redraw its congressional maps to improve their performance of Republican candidates. Excuse me, had the administration redrawn lines to help Republican candidates, had the letter been about that, that would've been harder for the plaintiffs, the people challenging these lines, to overcome. But the idea instead that the DOJ letter that has become central, this Department of Justice letter that has become central to this case, instead is talking about something different. Instead is talking about, here I'm reading, about using the state to essentially talking about racial lines, racial demographics. That is looming large here and that could have massive implications on how this goes forward because essentially, states can draw congressional maps based on partisanship. That's allowed. It's when the racial aspect gets into this that it becomes much more difficult to see. It really is fundamental to this situation in Texas and also in California. So going forward, do representatives of this, people who are proponents of it, have an option to appeal? That's, I mean, it's very early obviously, Reed, but I would expect an appeal here and I would expect quite a bit of anger and discord amongst the GOP on what has happened here. This Texas redraw was really central to what President Donald Trump and Republicans wanted to see, to help them in next year's midterms where they're already facing challenging national political headwinds to keep their narrow majority in the House. This kind of ruling is obviously gonna be quickly met with derision by Republicans and also likely to face appeals so it's unclear how quickly that will happen, but obviously this really does upend the midterms at this moment. Yeah, two questions, two words really form the question. Now what? Hunter Woodall, we know you'll be chasing the answer to that for sure. Thank you so much.

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