Trump's Trials - Texas appeals ruling that blocked the use of a Trump-backed voting map

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has appealed a ruling that blocked the state from using a voting map designed to give Republicans an advantage in next year's midterm elections.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and you're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things. Nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first 100 days of the new Congress. Unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket chip. Each episode, we bring you the latest news about the 47th president and the policy changes he is pursuing on his own terms.

We know from experience that means challenging precedent, busting norms, and pushing against set ideas about what the federal government can and can't do. It all raises questions about how much Washington and the country will change over the course of this term. NPR is covering it all in stories like the one you are about to hear right after this. You're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. I'm A Martinez. A federal court in Texas, Delta below, to President Trump's effort to reshape the midterm elections in favor of Republicans. The three-judge panel on Tuesday blocked the redistricting that Texas Republicans passed this summer.

They were aiming to improve the GOP's chances of winning five more seats in the U.S. House, where Republicans have just a narrow majority. Here to talk more about this. We're joined by Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider. So, Andrew, Republicans in Texas said they were drawing new maps to get a political advantage in next year's election. What do the court have to say about that? Well, the court didn't buy the Republicans' arguments that they were only engaging in partisan gerrymandering, which would have been legal, they called it racial gerrymandering.

The judges noted that Governor Greg Abbott and state lawmakers didn't start the redistricting process until Abbott received a letter from the Trump administration, framing Trump's request to redistrict, quote, as a demand to redistrict congressional seats based on their racial makeup. The judges said that the plaintiffs, which included several civil rights groups, were likely to prove a trial that Texas had racially gerrymandered

the 2025 map, which is illegal, so they issued an injunction against its use in the 2026 midterms. Texas Republican leaders have already appealed a ruling directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, so we haven't heard the final word. Yeah, President Trump called for the redistricting there, and his Justice Department wrote that letter. It seemed to backfire, though. Exactly. The judges said the DOJ got the case law on which it called for the districts

to be redrawn completely wrong. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown wrote the opinion yesterday. he was appointed by President Trump back in his first term. And he zeroed in on the letter from the Justice Department that set the redistricting in motion, even how it was written. He said there were typos and legal mistakes in it. He said even attorneys employed by the Texas Attorney General described the letter as legally unsound, baseless, erroneous, ham-fisted, and a mess.

And there's been a lot of reaction from both sides. You can give us a sample of that. Yeah, Democrats are saying they're elated. I talked to Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who represents a Houston district that was largely left intact by the redistricting. But she said the plan heard voters in every district in Texas. Every Texan should be supporting this decision to make sure that Texans, every single one of us has the opportunity to have our voices heard and to cast a meaningful vote at the ballot box. And on the other side, we've got Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who said any claim that the maps are discriminatory is absurd. he called the ruling erroneous and has gone to the Supreme Court.

Now, California's redistricting response to Texas, that was Prop 50. That was passed by voters earlier this month. It faces its own legal battle with its first court date set for December 3rd. But Andrew, I mean, so far it looks like Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, will move forward with it. Yeah, usually states redistrict at the start of the decade when a census comes in, but now because of Trump is a redistricting race across the country, California already responded to Texas by drawing maps designed to give Democrats help winning five seats there. Missouri and North Carolina have redistricted to Republicans. It's ongoing, and it could determine who runs the House in 2027, and Democrats

can check the Trump agenda. All right. That's Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider. Thanks a lot, Andrew. You're welcome. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's political news, with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow.

Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.