Democrats are struggling to respond to a White House-backed push to redraw Texas’ congressional maps with five new safe GOP seats, which could short-circuit their entire midterm campaign effort, Semafor's Dave Weigel reports.

The governor plans to go through the Legislature to usher in a map with more Democratic seats if Texas tilts its map to the right, according to a person with knowledge of Newsom’s thinking.

Republicans in Texas currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats, and the new map ups the total they could win to 30. All of those new 30 seats were won by Trump in November by at least 10 percentage points, leading to conservative optimism they can hold them even in what’s likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party.