In a victory for fair representation, Texas’ mid-decade racial gerrymander of its congressional map has been struck down. In a court ruling on Tuesday, a panel of federal judges ordered Texas to use the map passed in 2021 for the 2026 midterms instead of the map passed this summer. 

This past summer, Governor Greg Abbott began an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting of the state’s congressional seats under the direction of President Donald Trump. Abbott and the Texas legislature followed the advice of Trump’s Department of Justice to racially gerrymander the Texas map.  

Common Cause quickly denounced this effort as a short-sighted power grab, citing that the struck-down map targeted minority communities in major Texas cities, dividing and diluting Black and Latino neighborhoods to weaken their voting power in the pursuit of five more Republican seats. The court agreed the map was an illegal racial gerrymander. In U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown’s opinion, he wrote: “Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.” 

Told ya so, Texas legislators! 

This ruling stops the dismantling of districts that empowered voters of color in Texas and strikes a major blow against Trump’s efforts to rig the 2026 midterms. That effort was already a risky gamble, before the Texas maps were struck down.  

The court decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, who will decide whether to take on the case.