Pelosi: Texas proposed House lines ‘undermining the diversity that we need to have’ in Congress

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a set of new House lines proposed by Texas Republicans is "undermining the diversity that we need to have" in Congress.

“Let me just say that what you just described was the elimination of many minority seats in Texas, and that's unfortunate, because the gerrymandering that they're doing is also undermining the diversity that we need to have in the Congress,” Pelosi told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”

On Wednesday, Texas Republicans introduced a suggested set of new House lines, placing their party closer to gaining five seats in 2026. The freshly proposed map will likely mostly directly impact lawmakers situated near or in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area, Austin, Houston and the southern border.

Democrats are hungry to regain power in Congress after their losses last November, which have left them debating what caused them to fail in that election.

Later in Tapper’s show, he interviewed current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who said that his party will “defy history when we grow the majority in the House” in next year’s midterm elections.

“We have a solid, hardworking Republican majority in the House right now — and the Senate — we’re delivering for the people. And I’m very excited to go out and tell that story,” Johnson told Tapper.

“I’m very excited about the midterm election. You know that we’re going to defy history when we grow the majority in the House, because it’s only twice in the last 90 years that a sitting president has picked up seats for his party in that first election cycle, but we’re going to do it this time,” the Louisiana Republican added.