Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, August 14th, 2025. This is USA. Today is the excerpt.

Today, why Democrats have limited power to fight Republican redistricting, plus meetings across Europe this week,

ahead of Trump's anticipated

meeting with Putin tomorrow. And are empty churches ripe for residential conversion?

Republicans have the potential to flip a number of seats in the House of Representatives

if they redraw district maps in heavily populated states where they have the power to redistrict.

That's while Democrats are hamstrung in the biggest blue states that have enacted redistricting

reforms to prevent one party from having too much control over map drawing.

I spoke with USA Today, government accountability reporter Aaron Mansfield for more.

Thanks for joining me, Aaron.

Thank you for having me.

Let's start with Texas where, of course,

redistricting has made national headlines in recent weeks. Let's just get a refresher here. We know

Democrats left the state in protests. What's the latest and what really is at stake around redistricting

in the Lone Star State? Texas is the biggest Republican state in the country, and that's why it

matters so much. Republicans in Texas

at the behest of President Trump want to redraw their congressional maps so that there will be

more districts that are tilted toward Republicans. But given that Trump is not a very popular guy,

and usually two years after a president is elected, there's a sort of rebellion in the house

in the form of people voting against the party in office.

The deck is stacked against Republicans right now.

So they're turning to their biggest hammer, so to speak, in Texas.

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