A Republican-drawn congressional map has cleared the Texas Home, advancing a mid-decade redistricting push that would web the GOP as many as 5 extra U.S. Home seats forward of the 2026 midterms.
After hours of debate, the Home chamber voted 88-52, sending Home Invoice 4 to the Senate after which to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. Republican lawmakers voted in opposition to all 12 amendments proposed by Democrats, together with one by State Rep. Gene Wu.
Wu’s modification aimed to dam the maps till the Jeffrey Epstein information are launched.
“The Wu Modification makes the efficient date of the invoice contingent on a matter that isn’t even remotely associated to the congressional redistricting,” stated Texas Home Speaker Dustin Burrows.
Your vote sheet on the Texas congressional redistricting plan #txlege pic.twitter.com/Y94UXx4KTp
— Phil Jankowski 🌟 (@PhilJankowski) August 20, 2025
What occurred earlier than this?
Abbott referred to as the second particular session when Republican lawmakers didn’t cross maps and different agenda objects within the first session when Democratic Home members walked out in an try to interrupt quorum and keep away from voting on the brand new maps.
The redistricting saga began with a July 7 letter from the U.S. Division of Justice warning that 4 present districts—three in Houston (TX-9, TX-18, TX-29) and one in Dallas (TX-33)—unlawfully sorted Black and Hispanic voters collectively to decrease their energy.
Republicans say the brand new plan fixes these issues. In distinction, Democrats and voting-rights teams say it turns protected multiracial “coalition districts” into safer Republican or extra tightly managed single-race seats.
Contained in the Home, invoice writer Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) disagreed along with his colleagues throughout the aisle, repeatedly framing the redraw as a partisan venture permitted by federal legislation.
“I did ask to see if we [Republicans] may enhance political efficiency and I’ve been clear on that,” Hunter stated. “Partisanship, political efficiency pro-Republican…it’s wonderful. It’s authorized…Nothing uncommon.”
He added that redistricting could be performed at any time limit.
“The underlying purpose of this plan is easy: enhance Republican political efficiency,” he stated.
The race issue
Race was central to the redistricting debate, shaping the maps and the rhetoric contained in the chamber.
Lawmakers sparred over whether or not creating single-race majority districts remedied or worsened issues raised by the DOJ. Republicans argued they have been complying with federal legislation by turning coalition districts, the place Black and Hispanic voters had lengthy joined forces, into majority-Black or majority-Hispanic seats. Democrats countered that this maneuver diluted political energy by dismantling functioning multiracial coalitions.
They charged that the brand new maps “packed and cracked” communities of shade, echoing what they noticed as an intentional technique to weaken minority illustration.
State Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins pressed Hunter on searching for enter from Black Texans on the map. “As an African American right here within the chamber…we weren’t requested any questions or engaged within the course of in any respect. Do you imagine that’s truthful? I’m speaking in regards to the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, which probably will lose two seats,” she requested Hunter.
She additionally requested if the brand new maps eradicate two Black-majority districts.
“I’m unsure that they eradicate as a result of I feel anyone can win any election,” Hunter replied. “However did these demographics I simply learn change? The reply’s sure.”
“So there may be your racism proper there, right?” Gervin-Hawkins clapped again. “Whenever you lose two African American-leaning seats, then that tells you there’s a race concern occurring.”
State Rep. Ron Reynolds confused that regardless of Texas having the biggest African American inhabitants within the nation, the brand new plan would reduce their illustration in half. He warned that HB 4 would pit two African American incumbents, Rep. Al Inexperienced of District 9 and the long run consultant of District 18, in opposition to one another, undermining a long time of progress that started with the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s historic election.
Introducing an modification, State Rep. Yvonne Davis urged lawmakers to return to the redistricting framework they overwhelmingly authorised in 2021, quite than advancing a mid-decade redraw that undermined minority illustration. Her proposal, PlanC2165, sought to revive African American and Hispanic districts by sustaining coalition districts, lowering the variety of incumbent pairings and avoiding splits of counties and communities of curiosity. Davis criticized the present plan for chopping African American districts from 4 to 2 regardless of inhabitants development, calling it a transfer that weakens truthful illustration.
Collectively, these examples highlighted deep fears that the mid-decade maps would disenfranchise Black communities and erase hard-won political positive factors.
In her speech, Republican lawmaker Katrina Pierson defended the mid-decade redistricting plan whereas condemning Democratic criticism as baseless and hypocritical. She argued Republicans are unfairly branded as racist regardless of creating two Black CVAP districts the place none beforehand existed, calling that a rise in illustration. Pierson highlighted her pro-Trump stance, contending the maps are removed from racist.
“Increasingly minority voters are voting their values, not their pores and skin shade,” she stated. “Lots of them are shifting to Texas to flee the blue states as a result of their values have been efficiently gerrymandered into suppression…My colleagues on the opposite facet of the aisle are struggling proper now as a result of the actual fact is, President Trump received Hispanic voters within the state of Texas.”
When my neighborhood is beneath assault, I’ll by no means keep silent. At present, I spoke in opposition to the mid-decade redistricting scheme that will dilute the ability of Hispanic voters in Congressional District 29. #txlegehttps://t.co/Zh9YJMEi7p
— Armando Walle (@RepWalle) August 20, 2025
Authorized theories
Republicans’ authorized principle leans on two pillars. First is Rucho v. Widespread Trigger (2019), during which the U.S. Supreme Courtroom held that partisan gerrymandering claims are political questions past the attain of federal courts, leaving partisanship itself largely unchecked on the federal degree. The Second is final yr’s Fifth Circuit resolution in Petteway v. Galveston County, which curtailed using Black-Latino “coalition districts” beneath Part 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a ruling Democrats say state leaders are actually weaponizing to dismantle multiracial districts in Houston and Dallas-Fort Price.
These cross-currents have been displayed as members dissected how the plan reconfigured Houston-area seats. Underneath HB 4, Republicans stated, Congressional District 18 would grow to be a majority-Black citizen voting-age inhabitants (CVAP) district at 50.71%, a shift they argued responds to DOJ issues.
Democrats countered that Congressional District 29’s Hispanic CVAP drops roughly twenty factors, from the mid-60s to the low-40s, lowering Latino voters’ means to elect their candidate of alternative. Hunter replied that the district would nonetheless “carry out as a Democrat district.” The plan additionally converts the ninth Congressional District from what lawmakers described as a coalition district to a majority-Hispanic CVAP seat (50.15%), which Republicans cited as bringing it into line with Petteway.
The method grew to become a flashpoint. Members pressed Hunter on why a late committee substitute map wasn’t obtainable throughout area hearings in Austin, Houston and Arlington and why stay testimony was capped at 5 hours apiece. Hunter stated he was not the committee chair and didn’t know, though he famous that written feedback have been accepted. He additional stated he performed no racially polarized voting or efficiency evaluation, as an alternative counting on the legislation agency.
Exterior the Home, the political stakes are unmistakable. The brand new map arrives as management of the U.S. Home may once more hinge on a handful of seats. Republicans have overtly touted the purpose of making 5 new GOP-leaning districts, an intention echoed by nationwide allies and mirrored in how the plan reconfigures battlegrounds from Harris County to Tarrant County.
Democrats who fled the Capitol to interrupt quorum returned beneath DPS supervision. With the bulk reassembled, Republicans moved the invoice swiftly, over objections that the map dilutes minority voting power within the very communities DOJ flagged.What occurs subsequent is already coming into view. Civil-rights teams signaled rapid lawsuits, possible arguing that the state’s “repair” for DOJ’s race-sorting grievance unlawfully “cracks and packs” minority communities, substitutes single-race districts for practical multiracial coalitions and violates Part 2 regardless of Petteway.
