A divided three-judge panel has blocked the use of a new Texas congressional map that was designed at the request of President Trump to add as many as five new Republican House seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

In a 2-1 ruling, a federal court in El Paso granted a preliminary injunction preventing the state from using the new map, ordering instead that midterm races in 2026 proceed with districts the Texas legislature enacted in 2021.

The ruling on Tuesday came after a multiday hearing in October to weigh the district lines approved by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott over the summer. Those lines had prompted a bitter tussle that included state House Democrats fleeing to blue states to scuttle the first of two special legislative sessions to do

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