{"id":124319,"date":"2025-08-06T18:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124319\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T18:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:57:11","slug":"new-maps-could-make-san-antonio-delegation-more-red-than-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124319\/","title":{"rendered":"New maps could make San Antonio delegation more red than blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to redraw Texas\u2019 congressional maps<\/a> would bring major changes to Bexar County\u2019s five-member congressional delegation, likely leaving one of the state\u2019s last blue strongholds with more Republican representatives than Democrats.<\/p>\n

Currently three Democrats and two Republicans represent parts of Bexar County, which gave Kamala Harris 55% of its vote in 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Under\u00a0Republicans\u2019 proposed map<\/a>, that would change to one safe Democratic seat, two overwhelmingly GOP seats, and one new district that Republicans hope they could win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fifth existing seat, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo)\u2019s 28th Congressional District<\/a>, would no longer include<\/a> Bexar County, and it would also become an easier target for Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans are trying to manufacture a narrative that South Texas is a Republican region, and the only way you can manipulate a map like that is to really disenfranchise minorities in San Antonio,\u201d said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio), one of the Democratic state lawmakers currently holed up in Illinois<\/a> to deny Texas Republicans the quorum they need to approve the new map.<\/p>\n

San Antonio\u2019s two existing Republican congressmen, U.S. Reps. Chip Roy (R-Dripping Springs) in Texas\u2019 21st Congressional District, and Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) in Texas\u2019 23rd Congressional Districts, wouldn\u2019t see much change much under the new maps.<\/p>\n

But Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar\u2019s deep blue 35th Congressional District<\/a>, which stretches from Austin to downtown San Antonio, would be completely reshaped into the\u00a0new GOP pickup opportunity<\/a> located far from Casar\u2019s home in Austin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Members of Congress don\u2019t have to live in their districts, but Casar, a rising progressive star<\/a>, would likely be left\u00a0competing with fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett over an entirely Austin-centric district instead.<\/p>\n

The new 35th Congressional District<\/a> would start in San Antonio and stretch southeast to include Guadalupe, Karnes and Wilson counties, which all supported Trump by wide margins in 2024.<\/p>\n

Still Republicans have yet to line up a standard-bearer for a district that would have voted for Trump by 10 percentage points in 2024, but still isn\u2019t considered safely red.<\/p>\n

This week Bexar GOP Vice Chair Kyle Sinclair, who lives in Alamo Ranch on the Northwest side, told the San Antonio Report that he\u2019s interested in running in the new district even though he doesn\u2019t live there. <\/p>\n

He ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) in Texas\u2019 deep blue 20th Congressional District in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in close proximity [to the proposed new 35th Congressional District], and a Republican that votes the way that the people there want, I think, should do it,\u201d\u00a0Sinclair said, pointing to the gains Trump made in all four counties in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Greg [Casar] wants to run and represent the liberal socialist wing of the Democratic Party in Austin, then he\u2019s going to have to run for Texas\u2019 37th,\u201d he continued. \u201cBecause [voters in] Texas\u2019 35th will \u2014 as they have done \u2014 vote conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the new maps, Bexar County\u2019s last remaining safe blue seat \u2014 Castro\u2019s 20th Congressional District \u2014 would consolidate most of north central San Antonio into a single district<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Castro also has bigger ambitions<\/a> with the Democratic Party, and said that Republicans intentionally drew his home out of the district by about a half mile.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office got a call from the Texas Legislative Council shortly before we saw those first maps, and they asked me to verify my home address,\u201d Castro told\u00a0Texas Public Radio<\/a>. \u201cAnd then when I saw the map, my home was about a half mile outside of the boundary for the 20th Congressional District that I now represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the big changes, no public hearings were scheduled in San Antonio, as they were in other cities where districts are poised to undergo major shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of any other region in the state that has been impacted as bad as San Antonio, and did not have an opportunity for citizens to come forward and express their views,\u201d Martinez Fischer said.<\/p>\n

The map must still be approved the legislature, which is currently in recess while Democrats left the state to withhold quorum and Republicans consider various options to force<\/a> them back.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0will inevitably be subject to legal challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s plan to redraw Texas\u2019 congressional maps would bring major changes to Bexar County\u2019s five-member congressional…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[17032,17033,5229,47397,47398,17036,47399,7202,7203,358,17038,76630,41359,7453,47400,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-124319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-2026-election","9":"tag-28th-congressional-district","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-chip-roy","12":"tag-greg-casar","13":"tag-henry-cuellar","14":"tag-joaquin-castro","15":"tag-san-antonio","16":"tag-sanantonio","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-2025-redistricting","19":"tag-texas-35th-congressional-district","20":"tag-tony-gonzales","21":"tag-top-story","22":"tag-trey-martinez-fischer","23":"tag-tx","24":"tag-typedaily","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-wc-500-750"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114983353857602171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}