We’ve seen this playbook before.
After the 2020 election, Donald Trump infamously called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to “find 11,780 votes.” Now, he’s calling on Texas Republicans to find five congressional seats — before a single vote is cast in the 2026 midterms. And the GOP is answering that call.
Republicans have used every lever of power to entrench partisan advantage.
Texas Republicans unveiled a proposed congressional map on Wednesday that would give the Republicans control of 30 out of 38 House seats. That is up from 25. If enacted, it would all but erase Democratic power in one of the most diverse states in the nation.
Let’s be clear: This isn’t just a Texas story. It’s a national strategy. It’s not about ideology; it’s about control. Trump and his allies so fear the possibility of a Democratic House that they’re trying to rig the system ahead of time.
We’ve seen this kind of maneuver before, too. After the 2010 tea party wave election, Republicans launched a nationwide campaign called the Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) to win control of state legislatures ahead of the 2011 redistricting cycle. That effort paid off. Republicans gerrymandered themselves into durable congressional majorities in states like North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. A decade later, we’re still living with the consequences.
Now, Trump is attempting a mid-decade REDMAP 2.0 in Texas, a state that already had one of the most gerrymandered congressional maps in the country and has a long history of using racial gerrymandering to suppress voters of color. As Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias put it to me, “They’re trying to re-gerrymander the gerrymander.”
The new Texas map is a blunt-force instrument. It slices up Black and Latino communities — especially in urban centers like Dallas and Houston — in a clear attempt to dilute their political power. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, also minced no words about the plan. She called it exactly what it is: cheating.
This is part of a broader Republican Party strategy because it isn’t just targeting congressional maps — it is redrawing state legislative lines, too. And that matters, because America’s policy doesn’t begin in Washington — it starts in state capitols. Bathroom bills. Book bans. Voter roll purgers. Attacks on trans children. These policies are born in Republican-controlled legislatures and then bubble up to the national level.
Republicans know this. They have been playing the long game. Democrats? Not so much.
Today, Democrats hold just 39 of the 99 state legislative chambers in the country. And while many states with Democratic governors have embraced independent redistricting commissions to protect fairness, Republicans have used every lever of power to entrench partisan advantage. That asymmetry has now come home to roost.
But a state-by-state response isn’t enough. If Democrats want to preserve American democracy, they will have to win more seats in state legislatures. That is where many of the maps are drawn. That is where much of the policy agenda is set. So that is where the fight has to begin.
If Democrats don’t get serious about organizing, funding and flipping seats now, they could lose a fair shot at the House not just in 2026, but until 2032. Take California, for example. Some Democrats are eyeing a move to rescind the ballot measure that created the state’s redistricting commission, but that is something Republicans would most likely demand concessions for, like voter ID. In other words: Democrats aren’t operating from a position of strength, even in states with Democratic governors. Here’s the math: State legislators help draw more than 300 congressional districts and nearly 6,000 legislative districts nationwide. If Democrats don’t get serious about organizing, funding and flipping seats now, they could lose a fair shot at the House not just in 2026, but until 2032. A full decade of minority rule. The public is already fighting back. Hundreds showed up at redistricting hearings this week in Texas, even though the Republicans released their proposed map just one day before. Why hold a hearing before anyone has seen the lines? Because it’s a performance. The real decisions are being made in backrooms, not hearing rooms. Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom of California, Kathy Hochul of New York and Phil Murphy of New Jersey are weighing countermoves. Murphy put it plainly: “We can’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” But this can’t just be about retaliation; it has to be about strategy. Because this isn’t just about maps. It’s about who gets to set the agenda in this country. It’s about whether we are a democracy or a place where politicians pick their voters instead of the other way around. Donald Trump may be the loudest voice in the room, but the most dangerous power lies in state legislatures.
Symone D. Sanders Townsend is an author and a co-host of "The Weeknight." 
