Texas House Votes to Give Trump New Congressional Map

Republicans pushed a new congressional map designed to give them five more US House seats through the Texas House on Wednesday, after a seven-hour debate in which Democrats portrayed the bill as a racially discriminatory plan by President Trump to swing next year's midterm election. The measure was approved along party lines, 88-52, the Texas Tribune reports. The Republican-controlled Senate can now take up the plan with days, approve it, and to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. Trump told Texas Republicans in a social media post on Tuesday to approve the map "ASAP," per the Washington Post.

Approval could set off similar redistricting battles in other states, per the New York Times. Democrats pointed out Wednesday that the congressional map was the first piece of legislation the House was deciding on—not any of the bills responding to the fatal floods last month in the state's Hill Country. Several Democrats wore dark green in honor of the flood victims. The sponsor of the new map, Rep. Todd Hunter, told the House that it's legal for Republicans to redistrict in the middle of a decade for partisan gain. "The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance," Hunter said.

Democrats proposed 12 amendments to the legislation, all of which Republicans voted down. They included blocking enactment of the new map until the Trump administration releases the Jeffrey Epstein files, an independent redistricting commission is established, and a federal court rules the plan did not suppress the vote of people of color. Given the GOP's slim majority in the US House, similar redistricting in other states could mean the midterms will effectively be decided before any votes are cast, per the Times.