WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believed Republicans could pick up five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by redrawing districts in Texas, which could boost his party’s odds of defending its thin majority in next year’s midterm elections.
Republicans currently hold a 220-212 majority in the 435-seat House, with three vacancies in strongly Democratic districts. Incumbent presidents’ parties typically lose House seats in midterm elections, but Trump argued that redistricting Texas could improve its chances.
“I think we get five,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And there could be some other states where we’re going to get three or four or five. Texas will be the biggest one.”
House districts are typically redrawn every 10 years following each U.S. Census, to account for changes in population. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House districts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican and strong Trump ally, earlier this month added redistricting to the agenda of a special legislative session on July 21. He said he was doing so “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Abbott announced his decision days after receiving a letter from Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. assistant attorney general of the civil rights division, expressing concern that four majority-minority Texas congressional districts won by Democrats were unconstitutionally drawn along racial lines in 2021.
The move is not without risk for Republicans as redrawing some Democratic-held districts to make them more winnable for Republican candidates would make existing Republican districts more competitive.
Representative Marc Veasey, a Democrat whose Fort Worth-area seat is one of the four targeted by the Justice Department, labeled the redistricting effort a “craven power grab” and a “coordinated political stunt” between Trump and Abbott.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a joint press conference in Washington on Tuesday with several Texas Democrats, said: “Donald Trump, House Republicans here in Washington, and Governor Abbott are conspiring to rig the Texas congressional map as part of an effort to disenfranchise millions of people in Texas.”
Asked whether he was concerned that Democratic-leaning states like New York and California could launch redistricting efforts of their own, Trump said he was not concerned.
“Well, that’s fine too,” he said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Brad Brooks; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)
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