GEOFF BENNETT: Well, with less than two months until the midterm elections, the congressional maps are still not entirely settled.

Republicans had hoped mid-decade redistricting would give them a bigger advantage in the battle for the House.

But those efforts have run into a series of legal challenges.

And now conflicting court rulings have thrown Missouri's congressional map into limbo, leaving candidates and voters uncertain about which maps will be used in November.

For the latest, we're joined now by our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins.

So, Lisa, what is happening in Missouri right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: Geoff, this is a chaotic match over one congressional seat that's based in Kansas City, Missouri.

It has been held by Democrats for seven decades and more.

But Republicans redrew it in the state last year.

After they did that, trying to favor themselves, voters in the state circulated petitions and actually met the requirements to have a referendum to reverse it to overcome the Republican redrawing.

That has not happened.

And because of that, we saw the Missouri Supreme Court in the last couple of days rule that these Republican maps should not stand and it should go back to the old maps.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court, the United States Supreme Court, backed that up, saying basically the old maps must be in place.

They backed up the state Supreme Court.

However, just minutes after that, a federal district judge, Stephen Clark, ruled the opposite way, say no, it must be the new maps to go in place because primaries have been held under those new maps.

So where are we right now?

No one knows.

This still has yet to be resolved.

There has been sort of a rainstorm of court filings in the last day.

But time is of the essence.

Not only are elections soon, but Missouri is supposed to start early voting next month.

GEOFF BENNETT: And Republicans launched this latest redistricting race at the urging of President Trump.

Now Missouri is the latest obstacle in their plan.

So take us through where this entire effort stands now.

LISA DESJARDINS: Let's do something I love.

Let's go look at the map.

First of all, this is a reminder of what happened.

We had seven Republican-led states that have for sure redistricted, and Missouri there in yellow is still pending.

Now, for Democrats, there were two states that remapped favoring them.

California will be in blue, and that was remapped by Democrats themselves, and then Utah was something that was remapped by courts.

Now, that does show you the overall picture, but it doesn't get out what's changing now, which is the fate of these races.

So, for that, I want to go to the math.

First of all, let's look at Democrats' maximum opportunities here.

Because of remapping, Democrats could gain up to six seats in the House.

But Republicans have a much bigger number.

That's 16 seats is their maximum.

Those are the maximums.

But here's what's interesting now.

What is actually likely?

If you look at The Cook Political Report's ratings on all of these races, for Democrats, they would have a pickup, likely pickup, they're favored right now in five of those races.

So, a lot of the races, they remapped.

But look at this.

Republicans are favored to pick up just seven of the seats that they have targeted right now, according to The Cook Political Report.

In other words, Republicans are poised to get something on net over Democrats, but far less than what they intended.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Lisa, why are Republicans having trouble clinching these districts they redistricted?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let me show you an example, Texas, the state that started it all.

These are the five districts that Republicans are hoping to pick up through remapping.

They have moved them from Democratic-leaning to Republican-leaning.

However, when you look at what's happening in the races, only these two in red are solidly favored to be picked up by Republicans.

The others could go either way at this point.

And what's more, there's another district, Texas 15, which is held by a Republican now, but she is now more vulnerable because of the way her voters have been spread out.

Look at these districts, especially around the Rio Grande, and you will notice something, a lot of Hispanic voters.

That's a key vote right here.

And it's -- those are folks who went for Trump in 2024 by larger margins than in the past, but it's not clear they will go the same way this time.

We spoke to Republican strategist Melik Abdul.

MELIK ABDUL, Republican Strategist: Some of those districts have larger Hispanic than Black or white populations.

If they decide that they don't like the implementation of Donald Trump's policies, or if they don't like the state of the economy, that is something that could hurt Republicans, where we don't make the gains that we otherwise assumed that we would because it was in a place like Texas.

LISA DESJARDINS: In other states, there are also a number of Democratic incumbents who've been targeted who are doing very well in their races.

They're outperforming what Republicans thought they would do.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Lisa, with all of the focus on the impact of these redrawn maps, where does the battle for the House stand right now?

LISA DESJARDINS: All right, we're sitting here today.

Much can happen in the next month.

A lot of money will be going into these races.

But, as we sit here today, Republicans are on track to pick up a net of maybe a couple of seats because of redistricting, despite all of the states that have been involved.

It boils down to just a handful of states that they are looking to gain.

And they might gain none overall.

What we think is going to matter more for the race of the House is all these other battles around the country that are not in redistricted states, despite all of the Republican effort.

It will help them, but it may not determine the fate of the House.

GEOFF BENNETT: Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always, for this reporting.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.