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WASHINGTON — Republicans from Texas’ congressional delegation met at the U.S. Capitol Monday night to discuss a proposal to redraw the lines of their House districts, GOP Rep. Pete Sessions said.
Emerging from a meeting attended by most of the 25-member GOP delegation, Sessions said there was “a lot we don’t know,” including whether Gov. Greg Abbott would be in favor of the idea. Abbott has the lone authority to call members of the Texas Legislature back to Austin for a special session, which would be required to carry out the rare and extraordinary move of reshaping the state’s political boundaries in the middle of the decade, years before the next census in 2030.
Sessions, a Waco Republican, told reporters the delegation has scheduled another meeting to discuss the issue further and “share data,” but declined to give further details beyond confirming that President Donald Trump would not be attending.
The meeting came shortly after The New York Times first reported that Trump’s political team has been urging Texas political leaders to examine how they could redraw some of the state’s 38 U.S. House districts to help preserve the GOP’s narrow majority in the lower chamber in the 2026 midterms.
Sessions emphasized that Republicans, in weighing whether to push for a mid-decade redistricting battle, should consider how it would impact “the entire delegation.”
“We want to make sure all of our members, even those that are brand new, have an opportunity to see this for what it is,” Sessions said, declining to say whether he was concerned specifically about stretching Republican districts too thin by moving voters around to maximize the GOP’s advantage.
Other Republicans exiting the meeting — including Reps. Chip Roy, Michael McCaul, Beth Van Duyne and Dan Crenshaw — did not directly answer any questions about the meeting.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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