(The Center Square) – After the Texas Senate passed a Congressional redistricting bill that first passed in the House, a lawsuit was filed to stop it from going into effect.
The bill's author in the Texas Senate, Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, argues it is not only legal but necessary to better reflect the will of the voters who overwhelmingly voted Republican in the last election.
The new congressional map meets three criteria King says he used to guide the process. It “complied with all applicable laws,” it “improved partisan performance for Republicans,” and “made the state’s congressional districts more compact than the current map,” he said.
It’s expected to help Republicans gain five congressional seats in the U.S. House in districts that are mostly Hispanic majorities who voted Republican in the last election. The plan redraws 37 of Texas’ 38 congressional districts, The Center Square reported.
The Texas Senate previously passed a slightly different version of the bill in the first special session. It went nowhere after more than 50 House Democrats left the state in protest, effectively killing all bills the Senate passed. Gov. Greg Abbott called a second special session, which began Aug. 15, and both chambers have been passing bills at lightening speed, including HB 4, the redistricting bill.
The legislature convened to take up the maps as Texas continues to have record population increases and Republicans made record gains with Hispanic and Black voters in the last two elections, The Center Square reported.
While redistricting regularly occurs every 10 years after a census, the state legislature “is permitted to take up the issue whenever it wills,” King said. “Courts have well recognized this broad authority, therefore it is perfectly legal for us to have HB 4 before us.”
He also said that “courts have ruled that partisanship is a legitimate basis for determining district boundaries, which is why the newly drawn lines in the map focuses on political performance, he said.
King argues the maps not only are not racist, as Democrats claim, but drawn along voting patterns and political preferences.
“In contrast to the complications that are involved with race-based redistricting, political performance is really a pretty easy map to draw and it’s absolutely permissible as a basis for drawing electoral districts,” he said. Based on 2024 voting trends, voters in newly drawn districts could elect at least five more Republicans to Texas' congressional delegation. Currently, it consists of 25 Republicans and 13 Democrats.
“That doesn’t mean [voters] will do that in 2026,” King said. “There are no guarantees. There are competitive districts in here now, more competitive than the current map, and I have no idea who’s going to run for what office.”
After the maps passed, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, “This is a significant step forward – Texas’ Congressional Redistricting Map will now more accurately reflect our state,” he said. “The people of Texas expect and deserve a Congress that represents their values.”
After the legislature passed the redistricting bill, Abbott said he would sign it into law.
“I promised we would get this done, and delivered on that promise,” he said. The new bill “ensures our maps reflect Texans' voting preferences.”
Not soon after, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) sued in district court in El Paso, arguing the bill “intentionally dismantles minority-majority districts” and “eviscerates minority representation and hands Anglo voters control of an even larger share of Texas’ congressional seats.”
The lawsuit acknowledges that two new districts include Black majorities, including one in Dallas County.
The new districts are CD 9-Houston, CD 28-Rio Grande Valley, CD 32-Dallas, CD 34-Coastal Bend and CD 35-San Antonio. The new districts are primarily Hispanic majorities that lean Republican based on recent voting records, The Center Square reported.
In 2021, there were nine Hispanic majority voting age districts. Under the new map, there are 10. In 2021, there were no majority Black population districts; under the new map, there are two.
The plan doesn’t change the number of districts but creates new openings by moving incumbents to different districts, opening up seats in CDs 7, 9, 20, 30, 32, 34 and 35, shifting some incumbent Democrats to compete against each other, The Center Square reported.
A lawsuit LULAC filed in 2021 over congressional redistricting that already went into effect is still in litigation.
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