Legislation identical to two failed regular session bills seeking to restrict what bathrooms transgender people can use in government and school buildings have been filed in the Texas House and Senate after Gov.

Texas lawmakers traveled to California and Illinois meet with Govs. Gavin Newsom and J.B. Pritzker, who are weighing redistricting to counter Texas.

Redistricting usually happens after census counts or in response to a court ruling. Now, Texas Republicans want to break that tradition — and other states could follow suit.

The Democratic governors of two of the largest states in the country issued their most explicit threats yet to Republicans in Texas: If they draw new congressional maps to favor their party before the 2026 election,

The legislature is meeting in special session to draft plans that could give the party five more seats in Congress.

Texas Democrats on Thursday laid into Republicans for racing to create more winnable U.S. House seats before the 2026 elections in the first public hearing by lawmakers as they undertake a rare summer redrawing of the congressional maps at the urging of President Donald Trump.

State lawmakers came close to eliminating the STAAR during their recent regular legislative session, but the effort fell apart when they failed to reach a compromise between House and Senate bills.