This is Brian Lair's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Tuesday, July 22nd.

I'm Bridget Bergen, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom.

President Trump is hoping to pick up some Republican seats

in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it involves redrawing the congressional map. Now, here in

New York State, lawmakers are constitutionally restricted for mid-decade redistricting, but that's

not the case in other parts of the country. In Texas,

Governor Greg Abbott convened a special session of the state legislature yesterday, and high on

lawmakers' to-do list is redrawing the state congressional map. So just how many seats are in play and

what else could happen? Joining me now to answer those questions

and more is Matthew Choi, co-writer of the Washington Post's early brief politics newsletter,

and previously the Washington correspondent and bureau chief for the Texas Tribune. Matthew,

welcome to WNYC. Thanks so much for having me, Bridget. And let's start with a little context.

What's the normal legislative calendar for Texas lawmakers and how unusual is it to have a special session there?

So Texas is pretty interesting in its legislative calendar.

They meet only once every two years.

And during that normal session,

it's quite a marathon to get through an entire laundry list of legislation passed. That said,

the governor does have the right to call a special session when there is a pressing need for the

state. And following the devastating central Texas floods earlier this summer, there was

quite that need. And so this special session, while a lot of the news is being occupied with the

redistricting fight, there are some other pretty pressing issues that need to be addressed as well

...