Controversial Trump-Plan: Texas votes for new cuts of constituencies

After a week -long power struggle, the Republicans in the Texan House of Representatives voted to re -cut several constituencies. The MPs passed the corresponding law in the evening (local time). No democrat voted for it.

Before the changes come into force, the Texas Senate and Governor Greg Abbott still have to agree. In view of the Republican majority in the Senate, however, this is a matter of form.

US President Donald Trump called on his party to bring the measure forward quickly. The new cutting of the constituency boundaries is essentially about the balance of power in the US Congress in Washington, which also consists of House of Representatives and the Senate.

Trump’s Republicans currently have a narrow majority in both chambers. Before the congress elections in November 2026, they want to change constituencies in their favor. The measure in Texas should secure up to five additional seats in the House of Representatives. The party also has an eye on constituencies in other states. The Democrats want to react with similar measures.

A bitter argument was preceded by the coordination in Texas. Numerous democratic MPs stayed away for more than two weeks in Austin; Some traveled in democratically governed states to block the quorum necessary for the coordination. The Republican leadership then threatened arrests, fines and further steps to the exclusion of the missing from the House of Representatives.

Finally, enough democrats returned. As the “New York Times” reported, among other things, some of them even had to accept a police accompaniment after their return to prevent another blockade. Some therefore stayed in the plenary hall in protest, while in the Capitol demonstrators protested against the Republican measure.

The Democrats tried to further delay the process with parliamentary angle trains and long speeches on the day of the vote. The Democratic MP Donna Howard accused the Republicans like many other critics of targeting minorities – they tend to choose rather democratically.

“This chamber wants to (…) Black and Latinos in Austin to take their voice in the congress,” said Howard. The measure was the “attempt by a handful of deputies to choose their voters themselves – for fear that voters will no longer choose them,” criticized the democrat.

The Republican MP Todd Hunter, on the other hand, argued that the Supreme Court of the United States expressly allowed party policy considerations when cutting constituencies. So he did not deny that there are advantages for your own party. However, he rejected the allegation of a targeted weakening of minorities. The planned constituencies were checked legally, said Hunter. However, he could not say whether concrete specialist analyzes were made about the consequences for minorities.

Each of the 435 MPs in the US House of Representatives represents their own constituency. According to legislation, the circles should have almost the same number of residents. The basis for this is actually the census that takes place every ten years, which serves as the basis for determining the constituencies.

The targeted party political cropping of these constituencies is called “gerrymanening” in the United States. The boundaries are laid in such a way that a party bundles as many of their own voices as possible and at the same time distributes the votes of the opposite side to several constituencies. So a party can achieve more seats in the congress, even if it no longer receives voices. In this way, constituencies are often created with unusually winding cuts that artificially cut down the municipalities.

Both Republicans and Democrats have already used “gerrymandering” to get advantages in elections; Most recently, however, this was mainly done in Republican states. In 2019, the Supreme Court found in a controversial judgment that tactics are undemocratic, but constitutionally permitted – as long as no minorities are disadvantaged.

This is exactly what the dispute in Texas was about. Critics also complained about the pace of the procedure: the revival was pushed through in less than 30 days. In her view, the procedure could therefore theoretically be repeated before each choice as soon as a party sees its majority in danger.

For their part, the Democrats threatened to re -tailor constituencies in states they have ruled. A corresponding advance has already been started in California.