Texas can use a redrawn congressional map that adds as many as five Republican-friendly seats, the supreme court has ruled, giving Donald Trump and the GOP a major win in their push to add Republican congressional seats ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The supreme court’s decision came after a 2-1 ruling from a three-judge panel striking down Texas’s new map in November. The majority found the state had likely sorted voters based on their race – an unlawful practice called racial gerrymandering – when they adopted the new maps. The majority ordered the state to use the maps it had adopted after the 2020 census for next year’s election.

Texas is a key piece of Trump’s effort to transform the US House map to benefit Republicans ahead of next year’s midterms.

Republicans in Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri have all passed new maps that could add as many as seven GOP-friendly seats. Democrats have countered that effort with new maps in California (Republicans and the Trump justice department are suing to overturn the map) and Virginia that could offset those gains.

More details soon …