Texas Republicans redrew the U.S. House map to gain five seats. They could end up with a net loss.

By Will Hammann and Gabby Birenbaum, The Texas Tribune
November 3, 2026

In 2025, Texas Republicans, pushed by President Donald Trump, redrew the state’s congressional map before the midterms, converting five Democratic-held districts into ones Trump would have carried by at least 10 percentage points.

The move appears to be backfiring. By late Tuesday night, Republicans had conceded three of the five seats their new congressional map was designed to flip. In a fourth, the San Antonio-area 35th Congressional District, Democrat Johnny Garcia had declared victory. 

And in the lone Rio Grande Valley district they already held, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, was defeated by Democrat Bobby Pulido in the 15th Congressional District — losing ground that would cancel out the lone redistricting target still in play for the GOP.

Democrats were also leading in the 23rd Congressional District, left vacant since Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned in April over a sex scandal with a staffer. The Democratic nominee, San Antonio attorney and former teacher Katy Padilla Stout, made it onto her party’s national radar over the summer, despite the seat’s 15-point Trump lean. Democrats saw opportunity in the district’s majority-Hispanic status and the history of edgy, controversial comments of her GOP rival, YouTuber and gun-rights activist Brandon Herrera. Padilla Stout declared victory late Tuesday night, though the AP had yet to call the race.

Among the failed redistricting targets were the seats held by moderate Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen. Seeking reelection in seats Trump carried by 10 points, they handily dispatched their respective GOP challengers, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina and former federal prosecutor Eric Flores. 

That means Texas Republicans are unlikely to head to Washington in January with more than the 25 seats they had at the start of the current Congress — and may end up with fewer.

The Associated Press called the 15th, 28th and 34th Congressional Districts for Democrats, but had yet to call the 9th, 23rd or 35th as of shortly before midnight.

Republicans had high hopes for the redraw, which Democrats fought by fleeing the state, keeping the map in limbo by temporarily denying Republicans the headcount to pass it. But the new lines could not withstand the blue wave that swept through much of the country Tuesday, driven in part by the leftward swing of Latino voters. Texas’ new map banked on the GOP holding most of Trump’s 2024 gains with Latino Texans, who made up a majority of the eligible voting population in four of the five targets.

Nor did the redraw deliver what the White House wanted from it: a buffer that would preserve Republicans’ slim U.S. House majority. Trump’s push for the Texas map kicked off a tit-for-tat redistricting war across the country, producing similarly skewed maps in a number of states. 

With GOP-leaning congressional maps powerless in the face of the blue wave, the U.S. House has already been called for Democrats. The party has also wrested control of the U.S. Senate, leaving Trump to reckon with a Congress under full Democratic control for his last two years in office.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.