Trump Calls on States to Redraw Congressional Maps Before Midterms
President Donald Trump has called on state legislatures to redraw congressional district lines in the middle of the decade, ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. He said the redrawing would help Republicans keep control of the U.S. House, according to NPR.
Congressional districts are the areas that elect members of the House, and their boundaries are set by state lawmakers. States normally redraw them early in each decade, after the census, which is the official count of the country's population. Trump's call asks states to do it again before the 2026 vote.
Republicans held a 218-to-214 majority over Democrats in the House in October 2026, according to NPR. In the Senate, Republicans held a 53-47 majority, according to Reuters. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in each chamber to take control, Reuters reported.
NPR reported that Republicans have tilted about eight more congressional seats in their favor than Democrats through redistricting over the past year. NPR also described the 2025-2026 cycle of Trump-prompted redrawing as unlike any since the 1960s.
The fights over the maps have produced a series of legal and political disputes. Texas Republicans issued arrest warrants for Democratic state legislators who left the state during the redistricting fight, NPR reported. Louisiana's governor suspended a primary election after thousands of votes had already been cast so that congressional lines could be redrawn. Missouri's Supreme Court found the state's Republican secretary of state in contempt for keeping in use a Republican congressional map that was not legally in effect.
Some states moved in the opposite direction. California and Virginia voters approved redistricting in statewide votes in response to Republican redistricting in other states. Courts later threw out Virginia's plan approved by voters. Indiana and South Carolina legislatures rejected Trump's call to redistrict.
The U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in spring 2026, NPR reported. In June, the court granted Alabama's request to return to its 2023 congressional maps, and those maps are in effect for the 2026 elections.
Reuters found in an analysis published in October 2026 that nine Republican-redrawn congressional districts now lean Democratic or are too close to call. The Associated Press reported that after the 2025-2026 redistricting, the median U.S. House seat is Wisconsin's 1st District, which Trump won by 4.5 percentage points. In October, voters across much of the South were casting ballots in the redrawn districts.
NPR has also reported that mid-decade redistricting helped insulate Republicans and could limit Democratic gains in the 2026 midterms. Midterm elections have averaged a 30% drop in turnout, NPR reported in May, and primary voters in a small number of districts play an outsized role in deciding who wins Congress.
