Abbott, Texas Republicans launch new Trump-backed redistricting push as fleeing Democrats plan to end walkout

Expect plenty of action Friday in the national battle between Republicans and Democrats over congressional redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections.

As the Democratic lawmakers who fled Texas to prevent any votes on congressional redistricting in the red state signal they're coming home, Republicans in the GOP-dominated Texas legislature are expected to adjourn the current special session when they gather this morning. 

Moments later, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott will immediately call for a second special session to pass GOP-crafted maps to create up to five Republican-friendly congressional districts at the expense of currently Democrat-controlled seats. 

FLEEING TEXAS DEMOCRATS SIGNAL THEY'LL COME HOME 

The action in Austin comes one day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats unveiled their playbook to counter the push by President Donald Trump and Republicans to enact rare - but not unheard of - mid-decade congressional redistricting.

Newsom vowed to "meet fire with fire" by redrawing blue-state California's congressional maps to create five more Democrat-leaning districts.

REDISTRICTING BATTLE: NEWSOM VOWS TO FIGHT ‘FIRE WITH FIRE’

The state Democratic lawmakers, who fled to the blue states of Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, said that they would return to Texas after the adjournment of the current special session. However, they didn't say specifically which day they would come home.

The end of the walkout by the Democrats will lead to the passage of the new maps, but Texas Democrats vow they'll fight the new state maps in court and say the moves by California are allowing them to pass "the baton."

"Now, as Democrats across the nation join our fight to cause these maps to fail their political purpose, we’re prepared to bring this battle back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts," Texas state House Democratic leader Rep. Gene Wu said on Thursday.

Abbott is urging Texas' highest court to remove Wu from office, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked that 13 Democratic state lawmakers also be removed from office. The fleeing lawmakers also face fines of up to $500 per day for their absence. 

In Texas, the state Senate passed the new congressional maps, but Democratic lawmakers in the House fled the state, preventing the House from reaching a quorum. That effectively blocked any votes in the chamber to approve the GOP redistricting push.

Both houses of the state legislature are scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. CT, with both expected to adjourn the current special session.

Abbott would then immediately begin another special session.

"The Special Session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans," Abbott said earlier this week. "There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them."

Additionally, the three-term conservative governor vowed "I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed."

The Republican push in Texas, which comes at Trump's urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad their razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterms. However, while the Republican push in Texas to upend the current congressional maps doesn't face constitutional constraints, Newsom's path in California is much more complicated.

SCHWARZENEGGER'S NEW STARING ROLE: PUSHING BACK AGAINST NEWSOM'S REDISTRICTING DRIVE

The governor is moving to hold a special election this year, to obtain voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the non-partisan redistricting commission. A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature would be needed to hold the referendum.

Democratic Party leaders are confident they'll have the votes to push the constitutional amendment and the new proposed congressional maps through the legislature.

"Here we are in open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election and here [Trump] is once again trying to rig the system," Newsom charged on Thursday.

Thursday's appearance by Newsom, who is considered a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, will also serve as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California. 

The non-partisan redistricting commission, created over 15 years ago, remains popular with most Californians, according to public opinion polling.

That's why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely, but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three election cycles.

"We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting," Newsom said.

However, their efforts are opposed by a number of coalition of figures supportive of the non-partisan commission.

Among the most visible members is former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last Republican elected governor in Democrat-dominated California.

Democrats currently control 43 of the state's 52 House seats. In Texas, Republicans control 25 of the state's 38 congressional districts.