It’s been a long six weeks for Democrats in the redistricting wars.
By the end of April, the party had won enough Democratic-leaning seats to turn the back-and-forth over new congressional maps for the midterm elections that President Donald Trump had begun a year earlier.
Then the courts acted: the United States Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Actopening the door for Republican-led Southern states to eliminate majority-black districts held by Democrats. A week later, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked the state from implementing a new map favoring Democrats that voters had approved in a special election.
Today, five months before the general election, the dust from 2026 redistricting is beginning to settle. A total of 10 states have implemented new congressional limits over the past year, with Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee recently taking action following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Litigation is still ongoing in several states, but under the new maps, Republicans are on track to pick up as many as 16 House seats this fall, compared to six for Democrats.
The redistricting battle, which typically takes place at the start of each decade after the results of a new census, has reshaped the closely divided House race.
Here’s a look at all the states that adopted new maps during the 2026 election cycle — and which ones could enter the fray before 2028.
Alabama: up to 1 Republican seatThe United States Supreme Court Tuesday evening cleared the way for Alabama to use its preferred congressional map for the midterms.
The state will now use a map originally drawn in 2023, which a federal court previously barred it from implementing for discriminating against Black voters. The map is likely to reduce the number of seats held by Democrats in the House of Representatives from two to one.
Louisiana: up to 1 Republican seatAfter the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander as part of its major April redistricting decision, Republican lawmakers moved to pass a new card eliminating one of the state’s two majority-black districts.
The only Democratic-friendly majority black district in Louisiana, where a third of the population is black, now stretches from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
Tennessee: up to 1 Republican seatThe Republican-led Tennessee Legislature passed a new congressional map the redistricting of the state’s only majority-black district in Memphis just days after the Supreme Court’s decision, combining liberal urban areas with Republican rural areas of the state that extend hundreds of miles from the city.
Under the redrawn lines, Tennessee is expected to elect an all-Republican delegation to Congress this fall.
Florida: up to 4 Republican seatsIn April, GOP lawmakers approved a card preferred by Governor Ron DeSantis, which creates four additional Republican-leaning seats.
That has led to a serious legal showdown, with Republicans hoping the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act will bolster their efforts to overturn Florida’s anti-gerrymandering rules.
California: up to 4 to 5 Democratic seatsDemocrats’ most aggressive counterattack to Republican redistricting efforts came in California. Last November, voters approved a congressional map passed by the Democratic-led Legislature and championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which could result in more than five additional seats for the party.
Utah: up to 1 new Democratic seatA Utah judge gave Democrats a surprise boost last year by ruling that a Republican-drawn map violated the state’s anti-gerrymandering rules. In his place, the judge approved a new card with a solidly Democratic seat based in Salt Lake City.
Ohio: up to 1 to 2 new Republican seatsOhio’s redistricting commission was expected to redraw the congressional map last year after failing to reach bipartisan consensus on the matter earlier this decade. While Democrats and Republicans fought tooth and nail for other states’ maps, members of the Ohio commission make a deal.
The approved map gives the GOP a modest boost, turning two districts — currently held by Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Greg Landsman — more Republican while making a third safely more Democratic.
North Carolina: up to 1 new Republican seatNorth Carolina Republican Lawmakers I passed a new card targeting the 1st District, represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis. This made the seat more favorable to Republicans by moving Democratic areas into a neighboring district.
Missouri: up to 1 new Republican seatMissouri Republicans put a new card in place who attacked Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district, splitting parts of Kansas City into two more rural, Republican-leaning districts.
Activists submitted signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to block the map. But a state court ruled that the map could be used in this year’s elections, as part of a ballot measure campaign.
Texas: up to 3 to 5 Republican seatsTexas started the redistricting fight this cycle last summer, draw a map at Trump’s request this could allow the Republicans to win five seats.
But some Democrats argue that Trump’s electoral success in 2024 won’t necessarily result in a down vote, which could limit the gains Republicans hope to make in the state in 2026.
What comes nextAs the mapping battles draw to a close for 2026, they will resume before the next election.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called a special legislative session later this month to pass a new congressional map for the 2028 cycle. Mississippi Republicans are also expected to tackle redistricting.
On the Democratic side, New York lawmakers are expected to pass legislation this week that would pave the way for new district boundaries before 2028. And Democrats in Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington state are mulling their own efforts.
