The new map, ordered up by President Donald Trump and endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott, would wipe out five Democrat-held congressional districts

Democratic leaders say they will return for a second special legislative session after seeing California Democratic leaders proceed with plans to redraw their own US House maps to neutralize Republican gains in Texas.

Texas Democrats are condemning what they call President Trump’s “power grab” to give Republicans more seats in Congress. Meanwhile, California Democrats are vowing to wipe out GOP gains in Texas with their own new congressional map.

Republicans in the Texas House forced returning Democrats to around-the-clock surveillance by state Department of Public Safety officers to leave the floor.

Republicans claim California is more gerrymandered than Texas, based on a simple partisan calculation. Experts say such a comparison is one of many useful but imperfect measures to quantify gerrymandering.

As Gov. Gavin Newsom moves forward with his redistricting plan to counteract Texas’ push to eliminate five Democratic seats in Congress, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert decries the proposal that puts his seat at risk.

Republicans can move ahead with redrawing Texas’ congressional districts now that Democratic lawmakers have returned to the state. Efforts to thwart President Donald Trump’s push to tilt the political map for next year’s midterm elections in his favor shifted to California.