Aiming to give an edge to Republicans, President Trump started an unprecedented mid-decade race to redraw congressional districts before this fall's election. But it might end up being decided by a lower court judge in Utah or a state senator in Maryland.
Trump got Republican state lawmakers in Texas to redistrict there. California Democrats responded by leading a redistricting that could help their party. Other states followed. In an election Tuesday, Virginia voters have a chance to approve or reject redistricting there. It's unclear which party will end up gaining more seats in the U.S. House.
Some of the decision-makers are well-known political figures, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. But others in Virginia, Missouri, Utah and several other states serve as reminders of the power held by state officials, who don't get as much attention as the governors but have a lot of say.
Here's a look at some of them.
From shipfitter to powerful senator, Virginia Democrat pushed for big redistricting
By Jahd Khalil, VPM News
The more seats you try to flip with redistricting, the harder it is to win approval from the court and the public — and the harder it is for your party to hold the seats it has.
In Virginia, some Democrats wanted to settle for a new map that could pick up three House seats.
But Democratic state Sen. Louise Lucas, one of the state's most powerful lawmakers, wanted to go for four seats. It could take the state's U.S. House delegation from a near-even six Democrats and five Republicans to possibly 10-1 for Democrats.
"I said in August of 2025 that the maps will be 10-1 and I'm sticking with that today," Lucas posted in January. "Anyone in the Congressional delegation who wants a seat needs to campaign for it and not expect a safe seat."
As head of the state's Senate budget committee, she can set the agenda before debates even begin and has done so in the past, like in making clear she'd kill any bills to limit abortion rights.
Lucas, 82, was the second Black woman to reach the Virginia Senate when she took office in 1992. On her earlier résumé, she was the first female shipfitter at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, according to the Library of Virginia.
She says that's what makes her speak like a sailor at times, like in the expletives on her X feed, topped by a photo of her in boxing gloves. About redistricting, she wrote to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, "You all started it and we f***ing finished it." She urged a Maryland Democrat to "grow a pair" and lead his state to redistrict.
"Donald Trump knows he's going to lose the midterms. He knows it. That's why he's started this mess in the first place," Lucas said in announcing the new map. "Today we are leveling the playing field. These are not ordinary times, and Virginia will not sit on the sidelines while it happens."
An Indiana senator said no to redistricting, and others followed
By Benjamin Thorp, WFYI
It seemed likely last fall that Indiana lawmakers would follow President Trump's call for redistricting.
The state Republican Party holds a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature and has a governor who has aligned himself with the Trump White House.
But then, Republican Sen. Rodric Bray, president pro tempore of the state Senate, announced that Republicans didn't have the votes to pass redistricting out of his chamber and that he wouldn't call them to a session.
As the debate continued and tensions rose, several lawmakers faced threats or swatting attempts where police were sent to their homes. Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun vowed to mount primary challenges to Republicans who wouldn't vote yes.
Bray said he'd rather see Republicans just try to win the current two districts held by Democrats. In December, the Senate officially voted against redistricting, with most of the Republicans — 21 of them — opposing it.
"The people that decided they were for it, I gave them no pressure or punishment whatsoever. The people that weren't for it, it was their decision completely," Bray said, looking back during a local Chamber of Commerce event in January. He's an illustration of how state lawmakers are often in closer contact with voters than their congressional colleagues.
"I was contacted by many, many, many constituents," Bray said. "I would say 10 were against it to every one that was for it. So that was a big part of my decision as well."
Trump still kept up the threats. "We're after you Bray, like no one has ever come after you before!" Trump posted in January. Vice President Vance joined him.
Trump has since announced support for primary challenges against Republicans who opposed redistricting. But Bray isn't up for reelection until 2028.
Aubrey Wright of WFIU contributed to this story.
Texas House speaker was the redistricting enforcer when Democrats walked out
By Blaise Gainey, Texas Newsroom and KUT
Republican Texas state Rep. Dustin Burrows became speaker of the Texas House last year because his Democratic peers voted for him.
Months later, Burrows threatened to put Democratic lawmakers under arrest for leaving the state to slow the redistricting vote. He said he'd signed the warrants and would have them tracked when they returned.
"For those that have fled to Illinois or to California, be reminded that the FBI's assistance has reportedly been enlisted and their powers are not confined to any singular state's boundaries," Burrows announced in the House as the quorum break continued.
He said they were abandoning their responsibilities on issues like disaster relief and crime.
The warnings put Burrows — and helped put redistricting — in the national spotlight. It was in Texas where President Trump started his redistricting push to try to swing five seats toward the Republican Party.
Burrows, 47, an attorney from Lubbock, Texas, comes from a solidly Republican district. He has run a conservative agenda for school vouchers and cutting taxes. He helped get gun stores classified as essential so they could remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But when he ran for speaker, he faced an opponent who sought support from only fellow Republicans while Burrows promised to let Democrats share some power.
"We're tired and done with the partisan hackery, the red meat for primary voters," said Democratic leader Rep. Gene Wu at the time.
In the end, Wu was among those who faced threats of arrest as he traveled from the state, trying to block a vote and draw attention to the redistricting.
Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George had criticized Burrows early in his tenure as a "Democrat speaker." By the end of the legislature's work last year, he congratulated him for a "successful legislative session."
In Maryland, a Democratic Senate president blocks his party's redistricting sweep
By Jenny Abamu, WAMU
Democrats have a supermajority in the Maryland General Assembly and hold the governor's mansion.
And national Democrats, including U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have called on lawmakers to redraw voting lines and flip the state's only Republican-held House seat.
But Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson has blocked it. This leads to a question: How would he feel if, come the midterm elections in November, Democrats lost the House by the one seat he won't gerrymander?
"I've wrestled with that question a lot," Ferguson said in an interview. But he stood behind his opposition to redistricting. "I fundamentally and deeply believe that it would be the wrong strategic choice for the state of Maryland."
Ferguson was elected in 2010 with an education-reform agenda. He ousted a Democratic incumbent to become the state's youngest-ever senator at 27. His colleagues elected him Senate president in 2020.
Democrats in the state House passed a redistricting bill at the urging of national Democrats. But Ferguson says the plan would be blocked by the courts, which might even reopen old issues resulting in the state reverting to a map less favorable to Democrats. The court already tossed out a map in 2022 for partisan gerrymandering.
"Not only would a new map get challenged, but our current 7-1 [Democratic-to-Republican] map could be held to a new constitutional standard," he says. "That could allow the court to redraw our map, force us to 6-2 or 5-3. It would backfire."
Democrats for redistricting grouse that Ferguson has used his power to turn senators against redistricting, something he denies.
"I had no clue that the Senate president would single-handedly poison the well of this entire Democratic-controlled body," says Democratic state Sen. Arthur Ellis. Ferguson faces a primary challenge this year from a candidate who's saying Maryland should redistrict.
In Utah, a judge says the legislature has to follow the people's redistricting rules
By Martha Harris, KUER
Judges play a critical role in shaping the midterm maps, as redistricting almost always faces court challenges. In heavily Republican Utah, a state judge has given an edge to Democrats in a new district.
It grew out of a lawsuit challenging the map drawn by the state legislature and was randomly assigned to 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson, a former corporate attorney appointed to the bench by a Republican governor in 2018.
In August, Gibson threw out the state's congressional map, in which all four Utah districts were safe Republican seats. In November, she rejected the legislature's replacement map, saying Republicans gerrymandered to favor their party, violating a law passed by voters.
Gibson presides with a friendly, calm demeanor in her courtroom. But in her rulings, she wrote a rebuke of the "Legislature's refusal to respect the people's exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people's right to reform their government by enacting redistricting legislation."
"The Court bears the unwelcome obligation to ensure that a lawful map is in place," she wrote. To do that, she picked a map submitted by plaintiffs in the suit — Mormon Women for Ethical Government and the League of Women Voters of Utah.
That map has just three districts that favor Republicans and one that favors Democrats.
In the aftermath, threats against Gibson prompted the state judiciary to warn: "Any conduct aimed at causing fear for a ruling or undermining the safe operation of the justice system strikes at the heart of the rule of law. Such actions endanger not only the individuals targeted but the functioning of the justice system itself."
Republican lawmakers, including some who had confirmed her appointment, called her an "activist judge" and passed a resolution condemning her decision. Some called for her impeachment.
But readers of The Salt Lake Tribune chose Gibson as the 2025 "Utahn of the Year."
Missouri attorney general plays defense for Republican redistricting there
By Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway quickly became the state's bulwark in defending the state's Republican redistricting against lawsuits and a citizen petition.
"I like this battle," she said during an interview with St. Louis Public Radio in February.
She was Missouri's first female House speaker and a U.S. attorney under President George W. Bush. She ran a failed bid for governor in 2016 and was away from the political scene for nearly a decade before being appointed last year.
Hanaway highlights the pivotal role that some states' top lawyers have played in redistricting.
Missouri's redistricting, which could help Republicans flip one seat, has faced a slew of lawsuits. Hanaway's office won in court on the question of whether the state constitution allows for mid-decade redistricting on the grounds that it's not specifically prohibited.
"The constitution is pretty clear that the legislature has an obligation to redistrict every decade, but it doesn't have a limitation on how often they can do it," Hanaway said.
And she has won a lower court ruling — now under appeal — that the redistricting takes effect despite a citizen petition drive to block it. Redistricting opponents say that this is a departure from how the state has handled these challenges in the past.
Her office also claimed in court that an organizer and a lawyer for the petition drive made misleading statements and demanded that they issue a statement confirming the state's position. Richard von Glahn, of People Not Politicians, refused.
"I still have a First Amendment that protects my speech, and my government cannot compel me what to say and who to say it to," he said.
This story was edited by Larry Kaplow on the NPR States Team.
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