Republican-controlled Texas and Democratic-run California were set Thursday to approve new voting maps in a cutthroat struggle to tilt the outcome of next year’s US midterm elections before voters even cast a ballot.

The fierce battle between the country’s two largest states has been set off by President Donald Trump’s drive to protect the thin Republican majority in the US House of Representatives and avoid becoming mired in Democratic investigations from 2027.

Texas fired the starting gun in a tussle that pro-democracy activists warn could spread nationwide when its state house on Wednesday approved new congressional boundaries that would likely eke out five extra Republican-friendly districts.

Its senate was scheduled to green-light the bill later Thursday and send it to Governor Gre

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