Where the House redistricting battle stands heading into 2026 midterms

After 10 states enacted new congressional maps, Republicans are in position to gain up to 16 seats this fall, compared with six for the Democrats, as the parties vie for control of the House.

It’s been a long six weeks for Democrats in the redistricting wars.

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By the end of April, the party had drawn enough Democratic-leaning seats to turn the back-and-forth over new congressional maps for the midterms that President Donald Trump had started a year earlier into roughly a wash.

Then the courts acted: The U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening the door to Republican-led states in the South to eliminating majority-Black districts held by Democrats. A week later, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked the state from implementing a new map favoring Democrats that voters had approved in a special election.