The Texas GOP knows the risk. In the 2010s, the Republican-controlled Legislature drew political lines that helped pad the GOP’s House majority. That lasted until 2018, when a backlash against Trump in his first term led Democrats to flip two seats in Texas that Republicans had thought safe.

Texas Republicans launched a high-risk, high-reward redrawing of the state's 38 congressional districts, a move championed by President Donald Trump to protect the party's narrow House majority in next year's midterm elections.

The governor eventually agreed to include redistricting on his special session agenda after discussing the matter with the president on a phone call.