Trump on Texas redistricting: ‘We are entitled to 5 more seats’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas, in one of his first public comments on the state’s new proposed congressional map.
Trump had remained quiet on the state’s redrawn map since it was introduced, despite brewing commotion over the Republican partisan gerrymander that prompted dozens of state Democratic lawmakers to flee the state in a last-ditch attempt to block the map’s passage over the weekend.
The map could net Republicans as many as five seats in the state. It has triggered an arms race across the country, with Democratic-controlled states — most notably California — pledging to gerrymander their own maps in response.
“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas,” Trump told CNBC’s Squawk Box. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”
Texas Republicans last week unveiled a new congressional map of the state that, if passed by the state’s legislature, would boost the party’s chances of maintaining control of the House in the 2026 midterms. It came after pressure from the Trump aides to redraw the map, along with the Department of Justice alleging that the previous map could be illegal, even as Trump makes it clear the redraw is predominantly driven by politics.
Scores of Democratic state lawmakers left the state in an attempt to stop Republicans from implementing the map by denying the legislature a quorum. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly vowed to expel the absent Democrats from the legislature if they fail to return to the state for its ongoing special session.
Trump on Tuesday bashed the departed Democrats, some of whom fled to Illinois on Sunday, calling the situation “terrible.”
Andrew Howard contributed to this report.
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