That wasn\u2019t the only change. The new map would move Zimmerman Gallant into the district held by Republican U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Irving. <\/p>\n
Zimmerman Gallant was unaware of the change until she saw a close-up version of the map. Her neighborhood is in an urban and suburban area of Dallas and, she said, \u201chas very different needs and issues from people in East Texas.\u201d <\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s totally unnecessary,\u201d Zimmerman Gallant said in an interview at her house. \u201cIt will undermine community cohesion.\u201d <\/p>\n
President Donald Trump <\/a>asked Texas to carve out an additional five Republican seats in its congressional delegation through redistricting. The Legislature is into its second special session, where redistricting has become the preeminent issue, overshadowing other legislation such as flood relief and more than a dozen other items. <\/p>\n The proposal angered Democrats enough that most Democratic House members left the state for two weeks<\/a> to prevent a vote on the plan. It did not stop the Texas House from passing the map on a party-line vote Wednesday. <\/p>\n Related:Was the Texas House Democrats\u2019 quorum break worth the effort? <\/a><\/p>\n Yet, throughout the weeks of debates and hearings, there have been few discussions on how the plan will actually impact voters in specific Texas neighborhoods.<\/p>\n The congressional map Republican lawmakers are pushing would insert a third congressional district into the North Texas neighborhood where Zimmerman Gallant lives. Currently, the neighborhood is divided between two congressional representatives, Johnson and Van Duyne. <\/p>\n However, in trying to shift Johnson\u2019s 32nd congressional district from solidly Democratic to one that favors the GOP, map drawers assigned areas of the neighborhood to the 5th Congressional District held by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden, who lives in Terrell, a city that\u2019s a 40-mile drive from this neighborhood. <\/p>\n If the new map ultimately goes into effect, residents of this North Dallas neighborhood will be able to enter three different congressional districts within a 10 minute walk. <\/p>\n Texans have expressed displeasure with the maps in numerous legislative hearings in the first and second special sessions. Conversations with people who live in North Dallas revealed similar disagreements. Reporters with The Dallas Morning News visited 87 houses in the neighborhood. Most people did not open their doors. Some who did were unaware redistricting was taking place. <\/p>\n Of 11 residents who spoke, six were against the decision to take up redistricting mid-decade and divide the neighborhood between three congressional districts. Three residents were in favor of the new map and another two did not have strong opinions. <\/p>\n Kathy Owens, a 70-year-old retiree and a Republican, supports the mid-decade redrawing effort. <\/p>\n Owens\u2019 house, where she has lived since 1987, would remain in Van Duyne\u2019s district. She believes that neither political party should gerrymander. <\/p>\n \u201cIf they\u2019re gonna do that then we can do that,\u201d Owens said. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be OK for Republicans.\u201d <\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s district <\/p>\n House Bill 4 by Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, would achieve President Donald Trump\u2019s goal of shifting five congressional seats to the GOP\u2019s favor for the 2026 midterm elections. <\/p>\n The bill does this in part by taking Johnson\u2019s mostly compact district that\u2019s almost entirely in Dallas County and stretching it east almost to the Texas-Louisiana border. Some residents question what their neighborhood that is a 15-minute drive from downtown Dallas has in common with rural East Texas neighborhoods more than an hour away.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to be voting against my East Texas cousins,\u201d said Shaun Dalrymple, who lives in the neighborhood and will remain in Johnson\u2019s district. \u201cIt seems weird to be asking for local representation for people who are in rural East Texas.\u201d <\/p>\n The new map shifts the district from one that supported Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 24 percentage points to one that would\u2019ve supported Trump by 18 points in last year\u2019s election. <\/p>\n Johnson served in the Texas House for six years. She chose to run for Congress after Colin Allred gave up his seat when he challenged U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2024 Senate race. Johnson\u2019s office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the proposed boundaries. <\/p>\n In the 2024 election, the Dallas County precinct that contains the North Texas neighborhood where the three districts converge voted for Johnson over her GOP challenger, Darrell Day, 58%-41%. <\/p>\n Sharon Stern, a 75-year-old woman who has lived here for three years, sat on her front porch and marveled at the way her street was carved up. Her house, on Royal Park Drive, remains in Johnson\u2019s district. The houses on the opposite side are removed from Johnson\u2019s district and put into Gooden\u2019s. <\/p>\n She does not support Trump and disapproves of Republicans following his lead. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want what he wants, so I\u2019m not in favor of redistricting,\u201d Stern said. <\/p>\n
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