The Texas Senate on Saturday approved new congressional maps drawn to help Republicans win as many as five more House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The vote was the final legislative hurdle for the redistricting plan sought by President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott — one that ignited an intensifying, nationwide redistricting arms race.

California Democrats responded to the Texas effort on Thursday by approving their own new congressional maps , a Gov. Gavin Newsom-led bid to offset the GOP’s gains in Texas by handing Democrats five more favorable House districts.

Newsom’s plan faces another major hurdle. As California voters transferred the power to draw congressional maps from lawmakers to an independent commission in 2010, implementing the Democrats’ new maps will req

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