ELECTORAL MAP HEARING IN TEXAS TURNS FIERY

President Trump wants Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s House maps.

- By David Goodman

Scores of people from across Texas packed into the State Capitol in Austin on Thursday to testify against a Republican plan, pushed by President Donald Trump, to redraw congressional districts and protect the party's slender majority in the US House.

The public hearing, before a 21-member select committee of the Texas House on redistricting, was the first since Gov Greg Abbott directed state lawmakers to redraw congressional lines during a 30-day special session of the Legislature.

No maps with new district lines have been publicly proposed yet by Republican leaders in the Legislature, and none were expected before the initial public hearings. Two more such hearings are set for Houston on Saturday and the Dallas area next Tuesday.

So those testifying on Thursday were left to comment on the idea of a rare mid-decade redistricting, and Mr Trump's stated wish that Texas Republicans should produce maps that create five additional Republican seats before the 2026 midterm elections.

The state has 38 congressional seats, 25 of which are currently held by Republicans.

"I am dismayed that the legislative session is not focused, first and foremost, on flood relief," said Robin Peeples, a software designer from Temple, Texas.

She added that redistricting "should not be shoved through so quickly at a time when we're dealing with a disaster in the state."