WASHINGTON — Before he called lawmakers back to Austin to redraw Texas’ congressional maps, Gov. Greg Abbott was initially resistant to the plan pushed by President Donald Trump’s political team to pick up new GOP seats through a rare mid-decade redistricting, according to two people who have spoken to Abbott and the White House about the behind-the-scenes discussions.

The majority of Texas’ GOP congressional delegation was also wary of the idea, with many members concerned that Republican map-drawers could miscalculate and spread their voters too thin — thus putting their jobs in jeopardy — while trying to flip Democratic seats, six people involved in internal delegation discussions told The Texas Tribune.

Abbott told House Republicans from Texas that he was reluctant to take up the issue in Austin, where state lawmakers approve the new lines, if it would pit him against the delegation. In discussions with Abbott’s office, White House staffers attempted to assuage his worries but were unsuccessful, according to two people with direct knowledge of the developments.

Then, Trump placed a call to Abbott during which they discussed redistricting. The governor subsequently agreed to put it on his agenda for the special session, according to two people who spoke with White House officials about the call, one of whom also discussed the matter with Abbott's office.

Trump’s involvement underscores the immense power he holds over Texas Republicans and shows how far the president will go to protect his Washington trifecta that has handed him sweeping legislative wins, even if that means irritating those who are voting to approve his agenda in Congress.

If Republicans lose control of the House in next year’s midterms, Trump’s agenda would be stalled and his remaining two lame-duck years in the White House would likely be replete with Democratic-led investigations.

The details of the redistricting dynamics were relayed through almost a dozen people, many of whom were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations that could have legal implications. Any new map passed by the Legislature would almost certainly be challenged in court.

A person familiar with Abbott’s thinking said it was “inaccurate” to characterize the governor as being reluctant to pursue redistricting, but declined to provide any additional details.

Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, declined to comment on Abbott’s conversations with Trump and other Republicans about redistricting but said the governor “looks forward to the legislature addressing important topics such as flood relief and property tax cuts, along with other critical issues, during this special session.”

On July 9, Abbott announced the agenda for the special session that began Monday, laying out an 18-item to-do list that included a rare mid-decade makeover of the state’s congressional maps. The district lines are typically redrawn once a decade, to account for population changes in the U.S. census, though there is nothing barring lawmakers from crafting new maps in the intervening years.

In private delegation meetings, most Texas members actively opposed the idea. Others said redistricting was inevitable once it received Trump’s backing, and they should try to work with the White House to draw the maps in their favor. A few stayed silent on the issue or did not actively participate.

Their opposition was communicated to the White House, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, but it appears they were ignored. Multiple Texas congressional staffers told The Texas Tribune that some Republicans did not receive notice of Abbott’s decision to go ahead with redistricting before he announced it publicly.

Most of the 25 Republicans in Texas’ congressional delegation have stayed publicly mum. Seven of them declined to comment for this article.

With Abbott on board and the special session announced, Trump held a call last week with the Texas GOP members and declared his political team intended to flip an ambitious five seats with the new map, according to three people familiar with the call.

The message was clear among the delegation: there was no stopping the president and they should get on board.

“I believe that you got to give President Trump the respect,” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, said. “If we can redraw Texas and it fits within all the confines of law and everything, well, then let's get ’er done.”

Abbott justified the redistricting by saying it was needed to address “constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice” about the current maps, which were drawn in 2021 and are the subject of an ongoing court challenge.

The concerns were raised in a DOJ letter dated two days before Abbott announced the special session, in which Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon argued that four of Texas’ Democratic-controlled districts were unconstitutional and should be redrawn on the grounds of racial gerrymandering.

Since the special session agenda was unveiled, Democrats have been calling the letter a fig leaf that provides political cover for the partisan motivation behind the redistricting effort.

News of Texas’ redistricting has also set off a cascade of events that may have national implications.

For weeks, House Democratic leadership, rank-and-file members and representatives for blue state governors have been meeting to discuss retaliatory redistricting, The Texas Tribune previously reported. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has become more outspoken about doing so in his state in recent days, laying out several paths to circumvent the state’s independent redistricting commission.

Members of the California congressional delegation met with Jeffries last week. The group was largely in favor of redistricting to give Democrats another five to seven seats, according to two House Democrats who were in attendance.

Paul Mitchell, an expert in redistricting who has met with Newsom’s team in recent weeks, thinks that California could easily squeeze four Democratic seats out of the state.

“California has a much better hand, because we are starting from the partisan-neutral map,” Mitchell said, referring to the independent commission that approved the current lines.

In Texas, the maps are drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislature and have already been crafted to favor the GOP, giving them less wiggle room to send additional party members to Washington. In California, on the other hand, the independent commission has not as aggressively optimized the maps in favor of Democrats, giving a partisan-motivated body more freedom to shape the lines in favor of their party.

The boldness of the new Texas map — and whether Trump targets additional states, a possibility he suggested last week — could dictate how much political support Newsom and other blue state leaders could expect to get for a retaliatory redistricting effort, Mitchell said. The more aggressive Republicans are, the more justification there is for Democrats to respond in kind.

Texas Democrats could also flee the state, depriving the Legislature of the quorum it needs to approve new maps. But doing so would incur fines, and Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to use law enforcement to compel the attendance of absent lawmakers.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign arm for House races nationwide, has promised to wield its multimillion-dollar war chest against any Republicans who find themselves vulnerable under a new Texas map.

The DCCC has also pledged a six-figure sum for a public opinion campaign aimed at dissuading Texas Republicans from going through with the redistricting plan, according to a staffer with knowledge of the charge.

WASHINGTON — Over his 22 years in Congress, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has amassed untold power within the Republican Party, serving on high-ranking committees and ascending his party’s leadership ranks.

But the Republican base that sent Cornyn to the Senate in 2002 has transformed. GOP voters have turned to the right, prizing partisan fighters like President Donald Trump and championing culture war issues over the traditional pillars of fiscal prudence and small government.

Out of that movement has come Cornyn’s 2026 primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is harnessing his reputation as a no-holds-barred conservative to position himself as the president’s warrior from outside the Washington beltway in which Cornyn has been ingrained.

With Cornyn’s establishment ties putting his reelection bid in jeopardy, Texas’ senior senator is going all in on emphasizing his support for Trump — something he has been previously wary to do — to court the MAGA base that will be key to winning next year’s primary. Over the past several months, Cornyn has played up his conservative bona fides and allegiance to Trump's agenda through the bully pulpit of his office, issuing public declarations, holding hearings and embracing the president's favorite issues — even posting a photo of himself reading Trump’s “Art of the Deal” book.

Those efforts appear aimed at combating the perception among some GOP voters that Cornyn is not conservative enough and has spent too long in Washington, fueled by his role in passing the first gun safety bill in a generation and his ties to Senate GOP leadership.

His close ally, former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, has vocally opposed Trump at several turns, making him a pariah among some on the right. During Trump’s first term, Cornyn served as the Senate whip, McConnell’s second-in-command tasked with counting votes and arm-twisting senators into backing the party’s agenda. He parlayed that role into a failed bid to succeed McConnell, further underscoring his establishment ties to skeptics.

The narrative that Cornyn is out of step with Trump is being challenged by his campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign wing of the Senate GOP.

Nick Puglia, a spokesperson for the NRSC, said the group is throwing its weight — which includes a multimillion-dollar war chest — behind Cornyn, highlighting his alliance with Trump “to deliver big wins for Texans and fight for the president’s agenda in the U.S. Senate.”

Cornyn, meanwhile, has marched in lockstep with the president. His team has hired operatives from Trump’s orbit, including the president’s former campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio and adviser Chris LaCivita. And he has voted to confirm all of Trump’s cabinet nominees, including several controversial picks opposed by some of his Republican colleagues, like McConnell.

The senior Texas senator has also made efforts to praise Trump at nearly every turn.

When the president was considering strikes against Iran earlier this month, Cornyn took a measured tone. He called the possible use of U.S. munitions “a continuation of the current policy” toward Israel but emphasized that the American military did not need “to take the lead in this effort.”

After Trump ordered a strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities, Cornyn praised the commander-in-chief, saying he “made the courageous and correct decision to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat” and called Trump “indomitable.”

As Trump’s 100th day in office approached, Cornyn wrote an op-ed boasting that he was working “hand-in-glove” to implement the party leader’s agenda in Washington.

The senator has also taken up some of Trump’s pet issues. In March, Trump first questioned the validity of pardons issued by former President Joe Biden due to his alleged use of an autopen to sign the documents — a tool used by presidents dating back to Barack Obama. Pairing claims of mental decline with the pen, Trump alleged that Biden was unaware of documents being signed in his name, so they were “null and void.” Biden has denied the allegations.

Cornyn has since capitalized on the issue, wielding his senatorial powers to hold a recent hearing into the allegations and sending a May letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking the attorney general to launch a probe into the matter. Two weeks later, Pardon Attorney Ed Martin opened an investigation, according to a senior administration official who noted that Martin was acting independently of the White House.

Courting Trump’s support has become routine in a Republican Party whose leaders have displayed remarkable deference to the president and his whims, given the sway he holds over the GOP base.

But gladhanding Trump is something Cornyn has vacillated on. He started out as a Trump skeptic in 2016, calling him an “albatross around the down-ballot races” before eventually backing him. When Trump first tried to emerge from political exile in hopes of being re-elected in 2024, Cornyn was wary, saying Trump’s “time has passed him by.” He again changed his tune once Trump won the New Hampshire primary, going public with an endorsement.

Despite his past skepticism, Cornyn seems to recognize just how much sway Trump has over this election, with his coveted endorsement carrying the potential to bolster Cornyn’s conservative cred — or compound his uphill climb if Trump backs Paxton.

Matt Mackowiak, a senior adviser on Cornyn’s campaign, said Cornyn “has been a strong supporter of President Trump, and that’s really not up for debate.” He highlighted the senator’s time serving as the GOP’s Senate whip, during which he wrangled his colleagues’ votes to push through landmark legislative achievements during Trump’s first term, including tax cuts and confirmation of Supreme Court nominees.

Cornyn has been in touch with the president directly, Mackowiak said, to pitch “our plan to win the primary and the enormous cost and political risk if Paxton is the nominee.”

Paxton’s team has also been privately lobbying Trump’s circle for the president’s backing, according to a senior staffer with the Paxton campaign who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Cornyn’s efforts to align himself with Trump have yet to strengthen his record in the eyes of primary voters as he trails Paxton in a two-way hypothetical primary by more than 15 points in multiple polls.

Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist who ran Cornyn’s successful 2014 reelection, said he views the senator’s recent positions as an authentic reflection of his conservative ideology. But Steinhauser added that he’s “not going to pretend like the primary has nothing to do with all this,” noting that the tough race has forced Cornyn to message a little differently by “highlighting his conservative record.”

Mackowiak also insists that Cornyn’s recent moves do not mark a change in his views.

”There’s a false perception about Cornyn’s actual record, and it’s part of our job to make sure that people understand what it actually is,” he said.

Sam Cooper, a strategist for the Paxton-aligned Lone Star Liberty PAC, thinks voters will see through this strategy.

“I don’t think it’s lost on anybody that he’s picked up a lot more interest in these issues in an election year,” he said.

Texas’ attorney general has his own baggage to contend with. He was indicted in 2015 on security fraud charges before agreeing to perform community service and pay restitution in exchange for prosecutors dropping the case. The GOP-controlled Texas House also impeached Paxton in 2023, before the state Senate ultimately voted to acquit him. The Associated Press also reported that the DOJ decided not to prosecute Paxton in the waning weeks of Biden’s term, effectively closing a federal corruption investigation.

Nick Maddux, a Paxton adviser, painted these accusations much as Trump did in the 2024 election: as notches in the attorney general’s warrior-like record.

“Everyone’s come after him, and he literally won’t stop fighting — and he's won every battle,” Maddux said.

Cooper drew explicit parallels between Paxton and Trump’s alleged wrongdoing, saying, “just like President Trump, Attorney General Paxton has received his fair share of lawfare, and each and every time he's stood up and won.”

Mackowiak said Paxton’s legal history is certain to play into Cornyn’s campaign messaging, as they are “not sure” whether the electorate has come to grips with the attorney general’s past actions. He also sent a shot across the bow at the Paxton camp, warning that there is more to the attorney general’s record than what “has been out there for voters to see, hear and read.”

In this political minefield, many elected Republicans have remained on the sidelines, having found themselves in a lose-lose situation where they would incur the wrath of fellow Republicans no matter who they support.

Sen. Ted Cruz has told Dallas’ ABC affiliate that he will not endorse in the primary.

Rep. Michael McCaul, who served under Cornyn when he was the state’s attorney general over two decades ago, declined to say which candidate he was backing. But he criticized the race itself, calling it “unfortunate.” The Austin Republican’s biggest gripe was with the millions of dollars that are certain to pour into the race for both candidates, rather than in states “where we could pick up seats.”

“We’ve got a long way to go,” said U.S. Rep. Keith Self of McKinney, who also declined to endorse a candidate. “Grab your popcorn, and let’s see what happens.”