Abbott Could Add New Texas House Map
to Possible Special Session on THC Regs
Capitol Inside
September 8, 2025
Texas GOP lawmakers may get another chance to put their gerrymandering skills on display in the near future with Governor Greg Abbott giving the impression late last week that he's on the verge of calling another special session for the regulation of THC products.
Abbott appeared to show his hand after the second called session of the summer ended on Wednesday with the collapse of a deal on regulations for the hemp industry. The governor responded to questions on the cannabis bill's implosion the night before with a tantalizing verbal teaser.
"Stay tuned," Abbott said on Friday. "Something may be happening soon."
A decision to summon lawmakers back to Austin for a third special session with THC as the hook could set the stage for a Texas House redistricting effort that the governor could decide to initiate for the sake of protecting the GOP majority in the Legislature's lower chamber at the polls in 2026. Abbott refused to rule out a push for a new state House map last month when Democrats were holding out on a congressional map with a quorum-busting walkout for two weeks this summer.
The Republican governor ignored calls from conservatives to add Texas House redistricting to the second special session agenda when lawmakers were doing battle over congressional voting district boundaries. But Abbott hinted that a quest for a new state House map could be a topic for a special session at some point - and the Republicans could decide it would be a mistake to wait in light of the potential for a backlash against President Donald Trump that could put the majority in the west wing in Austin at risk at the polls in 2026.
The Republicans demonstrated this summer that they have the technology to draw maps with designated numbers of seats designed for partisan flips. Time would be in relatively short supply with the
filing period for the 2026 primary elections set to begin in early November.
But the Republicans could have a realistic shot at five to 10 House that are currently controlled by Democrats
if they targeted every seat in districts that Trump won in 2024 and several others where he lost to Democrat Kamala Harris but came close. The current Texas House map has more low-hanging fruit than the congressional map here did at the start of the summer before the U.S. House redistricting effort got under way in July.
The map for Congress that Abbott signed into law last month would give the Republicans 79 percent of the seats from Texas if the Republicans win all five that are targeted for takeovers in the 2026 general election. The Republicans control almost 66 percent of the seats in the state's U.S. House delegation on the current map.
But the GOP controls less than 59 percent of the seats in the state House here. The Republicans could pick up 10 Texas House districts at the polls next year in a move that would boost their share of the seats to 65 percent, which is slightly below the percentage that Republicans hold in the delegation to Congress on the map that's become obsolete.
The GOP has an 88-62 edge on the current map for the Legislature's lower chamber. The Republicans picked up four House seats in Austin in 2022 in the first election after redistricting in 2021. The GOP recorded a two-seat gain in the House at the polls last fall.
A mid-decade Texas House map remake would expect to evolve like the congressional effort with an initial focus on seats that are held by Democrats in districts on the border with Mexico. Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris last year in seven House districts that Democrats hold on or near the Rio Grande and lost by less than 1 percentage point in one that's contained exclusively in Cameron County on the state's southern tip.
GOP leaders and lawmakers could also try to redraw Texas House districts in the Houston and El Paso areas where Harris defeated Trump between 3 and 5 percentage points and several others in Dallas, Colin and Fort Bend counties where she had winning margins of 6 to 7 points in 2024.
A Texas House redistricting effort would be a high-stakes gamble that could backfire if Trump fails to reverse approval marks that have been historically low during his first summer back in the White House.
The Republicans could be putting a handful of the House seats they hold now in jeopardy in districts where Trump won by fewer than 5 points in 2024 with less than 52 percent of the vote by spreading their voters more thinly across the map.
A Texas House map - like the new congressional voting districts here - would be based on Trump's popularity in the Lone Star State almost a year ago. The Texas Republicans could be in trouble if the president isn't as popular a year from now as he was a year ago. Trump's failure to rebound in the polls could leave the GOP with a gain of only two or three seats on a U.S. House map that its lawmakers designed to flip five.
more to come ...
| 
