Texas lawmakers on Wednesday passed a new congressional district map intended to flip five Democratic-held U.S. House seats to Republican control in next year's midterm elections, a key step in an increasingly acrimonious partisan battle as California Democrats lined up their own redistricting effort.

Democrats and voting rights advocates have denounced the redistricting effort, which is designed to give the GOP five more seats in the U.S. House.

The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives passed Wednesday a redrawn congressional map that creates up to five new winnable GOP seats in Congress.