“We won!” is what Governor Greg Abbott had to say after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday greenlighted the use of Texas’ newly redrawn congressional map in the upcoming 2026 elections.

Democratic and minority groups challenged the map, asserting that the redistricting was favorable to Republicans, and Abbott doesn’t exactly disagree.

“Texas is officially — and legally — more red,” Abbott said. “The U.S. Supreme Court restored the redistricting maps passed by Texas that were based on constitutional principles and Supreme Court precedent. The new congressional districts better align our representation in Washington D.C. with the values of our state.

“This is a victory for Texas voters, for common sense, and for the U.S. Constitution.”

In late November, a federal panel blocked the new map, leading Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to appeal to the Supreme Court in an effort to defend “Texas’ big beautiful map.”

“In the face of Democrats’ attempt to abuse the judicial system to steal the U.S. House, I have defended Texas’s fundamental right to draw a map that ensures we are represented by Republicans. The Big Beautiful Map will be in effect for 2026,” said Paxton.

“Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state. This map reflects the political climate of our state and is a massive win for Texas and every conservative who is tired of watching the left try to upend the political system with bogus lawsuits.”

The granting of Texas’ emergency stay will allow the congressional map, which was signed into law in August, to remain in effect for the 2026 midterms and until the Supreme Court issues a final decision on the matter.

As the case remains ongoing, Paxton says he will continue to defend the Congressional map against Democrats and their allied organizations’ attempts to undermine it.

Case background

In the initial challenge, two of three judges on the federal panel found that the map appeared to be an attempt at race-based gerrymandering, while the dissenter, Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, wrote that the majority’s ruling was “unfair to the Texas voters who are having a map implemented by their duly elected legislature overturned by a self-aggrandizing, results-oriented court.”

The majority found that Texas needed to use district boundaries drawn by legislators in 2021. The new map made five districts more favorable to Republican voting, and the judges said the map had been drawn at the urging of the Trump administration.

“The map ultimately passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor — the 2025 Map — achieved all but one of the racial objectives that DOJ demanded,” wrote U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Galveston-based judge who was appointed to the federal court by Trump.

“Reverting to the 2021 map is also more proper than giving the Legislature an opportunity to redraw the map before issuing an injunction, as the state defendants ask the court to do.”

In his dissenting opinion, Smith writes that “Brown’s analysis exposes either a naivete that is unbefitting of the judiciary or a willful blindness unbecoming of the judiciary.”

“In my 37 years on the federal bench, this is the most outrageous conduct by a judge that I have ever encountered in a case in which I have been involved,” Smith wrote. “In summary, Judge Brown has issued a 160-page opinion without giving me any reasonable opportunity to respond.”

Missouri and North Carolina also have passed maps that likely would add a Republican each. And California’s Proposition 50 countered Texas’ five GOP swing with five Democratic seats. Democrats also have filed legal challenges in North Carolina and Missouri.

Ohio, which was legally required to redraw its map this year, saw a deal that could turn two Democratic seats over to the GOP, but Democrats say both districts will be competitive for the 2026 election.

Indiana lawmakers have been asked to draw a new map that would give the GOP two more districts, but state Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray has refused to do so.

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