Republicans in several key states are pulling out all the stops to avoid losing control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, with lawmakers in Ohio and Texas planning on redrawing new lines for congressional districts to eliminate several Democratic members of the House and restore a GOP advantage.
For context, on June 20, 2025, press accounts confirmed that lawmakers in Ohio and Texas are actively exploring ways to redraw congressional districts in their respective states, which could result in the GOP being able to gain a major advantage over the Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections, preventing the Dems from gaining control of the House with a net gain of three seats.
Speaking to CNN, Adam Kincaid, the president and executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, explained that his organization is making it a top priority to “keep the House,” adding, “Republicans should be looking for as many seats as we can get.” Kincaid added, “There were a handful of seats that weren’t politically possible to get before that may be possible now.”
Importantly, House Republicans are not the only lawmakers who have expressed support for the redrawing of district lines in Texas. For example, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reportedly stated that redrawing could benefit the Democrats, telling the press that, as it stands, the state is “already gerrymandered” in favor of Republicans.”
Moreover, as reported by the Washington Examiner, Rep. Jeffries said that he had spoken to “a lot of Democrats” in Texas who had concluded, “based on the fact that the map is already gerrymandered at its height, that they could open up four to six swing seat opportunities that don’t exist right now for Democrats.” However, on the other hand, a Texas GOP staffer told the Washington Examiner that Republicans in Texas “are overall happy with the way the lines are drawn.”
In addition, the unnamed GOP staffer who spoke to the examiner called the possibility of redrawing the lines “a head-scratcher,” adding, “The calculus of meddling with them is puzzling.” On the other hand, Rep. Jeffries said that redistricting could benefit the Democrats by providing “enough seats in Texas alone to take the majority back.”
Continuing to make the case for why redistricting would benefit the Democrats, the House minority leader referred to a mid-decade districting that took place in North Carolina in 2023, in which the Democratic representative said that the GOP “stole three seats.” He added, “Instead of doing what they did in North Carolina, where they basically snatched victory from the jaws of electoral defeat that they were heading toward,” redistricting would end up backfiring on the GOP.
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In contrast to Rep. Jeffries, Marina Jenkens, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, reportedly spoke out against the push for redistricting, calling it “further manipulation of egregious gerrymanders in red states like Texas and Ohio” sought by Republicans, saying that the GOP was making such moves because it is “terrified of voters.”
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