The Texas Legislature has approved a final redistricting of the second-most populous U.S. state, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The move is intended to give Republicans five additional House seats to help them maintain their slim majority in the lower house of Congress after the November midterm elections. President Donald Trump's party now holds 220 seats in the House of Representatives, while Democrats hold 215.
Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of the Texas legislature. After the redistricting bill passed the state House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Texas Senate gave its final approval last night. Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Trump Democrat, is expected to sign the bill into law quickly. Democrats, however, are likely to challenge the changes in court, the AP notes.
The events in Texas have sparked a nationwide fight to redraw electoral districts, with President Trump encouraging Republican-controlled states to do so.
Democrats have pushed through a similar redistricting bill in California that is expected to give them five additional seats in the federal House of Representatives. The party has a comfortable majority in the legislature of the most populous American state, which approved the relevant law, which was quickly signed yesterday by Governor Gavin Newsom.
The changes must also be approved by California residents in a referendum, which will be held on November 4. This is necessary because, unlike Texas, the map of electoral districts in the state is generally drawn by a non-partisan commission in order to avoid political battles like those that are taking place now, the AP points out.
The US Supreme Court, for its part, ruled that the constitution does not prohibit partisan manipulation of electoral districts, but only the use of the racial factor as a pretext for redrawing their boundaries.