Former President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he supported a proposal by California Democrats to redraw congressional lines in response to a Republican-led push in Texas to gain additional US House seats but expressed unease with the broader effects of political gerrymandering.

The Texas Senate has approved a Trump backed redistricting bill that could gain the GOP five House seats in 2026.

Former President Barack Obama accused Lone Star State Republicans of seeking to engage in gerrymandering in "a power grab that undermines our democracy"

Former President Barack Obama waded into the debate over redistricting in a zoom call with Texas House Democrats on Thursday, warning of a “systematic assault on democracy” spurred by Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps in Texas.

Just as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred was holding a town hall near the Mexican border as part of an “unrig Texas” campaign tour, the state’s Democratic fundraising powerhouse Beto O’Rourke rallied support in Austin for lawmakers who left the state to delay a redistricting plan led by President Donald Trump.

Ratcheting up the pressure in the escalating national fight over control of Congress, the California Legislature on Thursday approved November special election to ask voters in November to redraw the state's electoral lines to favor Democrats and thwart President Trump's far-right policy agenda.

Democratic officials from former President Barack Obama to the party’s congressional leaders have united behind California’s bid to draw a map that imperils a half-dozen House GOP incumbents in next year’s midterm elections,