# Mid-Decade Redistricting Redrawing congressional districts at a point in the decade other than immediately after the decennial census. **Nothing in federal law requires states to redistrict only once per decade.** The Constitution requires apportionment every ten years and federal statute requires single-member districts, but neither limits how often a state may redraw within the decade; *League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry* (2006) confirmed there is no federal bar. The once-a-decade pattern was therefore a norm, not a rule — which is why it could be abandoned without any law changing. Roughly a dozen states redrew or attempted to redraw between 2025 and 2026; see [[Redistricting Timeline 2025-2026]]. Some state constitutions do impose their own limits. ## The 2025-2026 wave and its risk The wave was premised on a reading of the 2024 election as a durable realignment rather than an anti-incumbent, inflation-driven swing. That premise matters because maximizing seats requires accepting thinner margins in each of them: the Texas redraw manufactured five additional Republican seats by shaving existing districts closer than they had been, betting specifically that Hispanic voters would keep breaking Republican. By early 2026 that bet looked shaky. Democratic overperformance across Texas in November 2025, and then the [[Texas Senate District 9 Special Election]] — a Democratic flip in a Tarrant County district [[Donald Trump]] had carried by 17 points, on a swing of roughly 31 points — prompted analysts to ask whether the redraw had produced a [[Dummymander]]: a map that costs its author seats precisely because it was drawn to be maximally aggressive.