Since a federal court blocked the implementation of Texas’ redistricting plan to boost Republican congressional seats on Nov.16, other states are debating whether to redraw district lines. The court ruling and passage of California’s Prop. 50 — the state’s response to Texas’ pro-Republican redistricting — have left state lawmakers scrambling ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The map in Texas was proposed with the intention of flipping five House seats during the 2026 midterm elections. However, the court, consisting of three federal judges from El Paso, sided with civil rights groups who asserted that the new Texas map is an illegal racial gerrymander.
“What the lawsuit claims is that … they actually disenfranchised minority voters,” said Diego Andrades, assistant director of USC’s Center for the Political Future. “The claim is that it has negative implications on Latino voters and other minorities in the state, and that those implications are so wrong that it would trigger the Voting Rights Act.”
But Prop. 50 now also faces challenges in court. The redrawn maps are intended to add five Democratic seats to the House, a direct counter to the actions of Texas lawmakers. However, California Republican state lawmakers sued Gov. Gavin Newsom to block the implementation just a day after it was passed.
Many students and political experts continue to support the redistricting plan and believe it to be constitutional.
“They had it approved through the legislature [and] made it a ballot proposition … the people of California voted on the initiative. That makes it completely legal,” said Dora Kingsley Vertenten, professor and master of public administration coordinator at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. “I don’t know why [Newsom] should have to repeal it if the courts have decided that there’s nothing wrong with it.”
While redistricting usually occurs every 10 years, many states are attempting to redistrict mid-decade and have even met with White House officials and congressional delegations.
One of these states is Indiana. According to NBC News, President Trump ridiculed Indiana state officials for not supporting the measure to “approve a new congressional map that would benefit Republicans.” While the state initially resisted Trump’s call to action, legislators are now reconsidering.
The new state map aims to produce a 9-0 Republican House delegation by moving the lines around populated Democratic areas into more rural Republican territory. The Indiana State Senate is expected to reconvene on Dec. 8 to finalize a decision.
Other Republican-led states, specifically Florida, are following a similar path but have not made any official decisions yet.
“Governor DeSantis [of Florida] tweeted that he is going to reconvene the legislature to draw new maps,” said Andrades. “That’s a really good test case because it’s going to show if Governor DeSantis has the power over the legislature to really control them to draw new maps, or if they’re going to decide to use their autonomy not to pass new maps.”
After Prop. 50 passed, a new ballot initiative was proposed to determine whether the new maps would solely apply to the 2026 midterm elections. The proposed ballot measure would ensure the redistricted maps are used only for this election and then return in 2028 and 2030 to the previous maps drawn using Census data in 2021.
However, there are varying opinions on whether the maps will, or should, return to how they were previously.
“I think it is unlikely that the maps, at least in California, will go back,” said Aayushi Garg, a sophomore public policy and data analytics student who serves as the director of the USC Political Student Assembly. He noted that North Carolina is “changing their maps like every two years … because North Carolina is one of the most evenly split Democratic and Republican states.”
Patrick Done, junior political science major and president of Trojan Democrats, hopes that Democrats and Republicans will move toward a compromise when it comes to redistricting.
“It’s very important that we take steps to make sure that we can make a democracy better and more responsive,” Done said.
The U.S. Central District Court of California will hear arguments to overturn Prop. 50 on Dec. 15.