Texas Republicans release new House maps as they attempt to take 5 Democratic seats

 Texas Republicans are powering ahead with a strategy backed by President Donald Trump to seize control of multiple Democratic seats ahead of next year’s midterms by redrawing the state’s congressional map.

Multiple Democratic sources said the new proposed map shows that Republicans are attempting to gain five more congressional seats, which they hope will help their chances of holding onto the House majority in the 2026 midterms.

The map targets Democrats including Rep. Greg Casar, whose Austin-area seat would be completely eliminated. That would likely force him into a primary with another liberal Democrat, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, in the Austin area.

Republicans also propose merging the seat of Rep. Al Green with a vacant seat held by the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, who died in office earlier this year. Green’s Houston-area district was altered more than any other sitting member and Democrats expect Green to run in the new seat, though he may have to battle it out with some of the Democratic candidates who were already running for the Turner seat.

It’s a potentially seismic moment for the House, with Democratic governors in states like California vowing to attempt the same tactics to help their party win more seats if Republicans did indeed do this in Texas – leading to what one House Democratic lawmaker described to CNN as a “redistricting arms race.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries traveled to Austin to meet with some state Democrats Wednesday as they prepare to fight the map, which the state legislature is expected to approve in the coming days.

Democrats plan to challenge the map in court. If the map is adopted, some in the party believe a best-case scenario could be losing only two seats — while Republicans are hoping to flip all five.

“Should this map become law, we anticipate Texas will get sued and the map will get struck down,” Julie Merz, executive director of House Democrats’ campaign arm, wrote in a statement Wednesday.

Privately, some Democrats wonder if Doggett — who is Congress’ longest-serving Texan — would choose to retire rather than run against Casar., his fellow progressive colleague.

But multiple people close to Doggett told CNN they do not expect him to bow out quietly and instead foresee the two battling it out in a primary. One of those people close to the senior House Democrat pointed out that he has $6.2 million cash on hand.

In his own statement, Doggett did not address the question of his future and said his “sole focus” is defeating the new GOP map.

“For years, Republicans have failed in their attempts to use redistricting to get rid of me. If we continue working together, they will fail again,” Doggett wrote.

Casar, for his part, vowed in his own statement to “fight back with everything we’ve got,” calling for voters to “mobilize against this illegal map.”

One potential bright spot for Democrats: The map is not as bad as it could be for the state’s two South Texan Democrats, according to a Texas Democratic lawmaker who spoke to CNN Wednesday.

Republicans are seeking to oust those two South Texans, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, whose seats will become more GOP-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, from Beto O’Rourke to Kamala Harris.

The Texas Democratic lawmaker acknowledged those two South Texans would need to raise more money and hire more staff, but argued they could still win those seats. Cuellar, for instance, has represented some of that turf before — such as Hidalgo County.

The new map features 30 districts that Trump would have won in 2024, 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.

Trump has not commented on the Texas proposal, but Vice President JD Vance posted on X about California’s congressional map, which he described as an “outrageous” gerrymander.

“Of their 52 congressional districts, 9 of them are Republican. That means 17 percent of their delegation is Republican when Republicans regularly win 40 percent of the vote in that state,” Vance wrote. “How can this possibly be allowed?”

California’s map was drawn by an independent commission, not the Democratic legislature in the state.

This story has been updated with additional details.