{"id":17654,"date":"2025-06-27T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17654\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T00:21:11","slug":"san-antonio-lawmakers-gear-up-to-fight-trumps-redistricting-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17654\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio lawmakers gear up to fight Trump’s redistricting plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

As both <\/strong>parties scrounge for opportunities among relatively few competitive congressional seats in 2026, a potential Texas redistricting fight has captured the imagination of political watchers near and far.<\/p>\n

Republicans currently hold a 220-212 seat advantage<\/a> in the U.S. House of Representatives, and President Donald Trump wants Texas to redraw its<\/a> congressional maps so that more of its seats favor Republicans.<\/p>\n

At the same time, civil rights groups are suing Texas<\/a> to make more of its congressional districts Latino-majority \u2014 raising additional speculation about changes to the maps in a state that both national Republicans and national Democrats consider critical to their parties\u2019 futures.<\/p>\n

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau is used to assign states the number of congressional seats they get to represent them in D.C., but the states have relatively broad authority to draw the district lines how they choose \u2014 often crafted to give the party in power its best chances at winning seats.<\/p>\n

Like other redistricting efforts, which typically occur after a Census determines that new maps are needed to account for population shifts, the mid-cycle redistricting process would move through the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n

Right now lawmakers, political consultants and voting rights advocates are holding their collective breath to see if Gov. Greg Abbott will try to deliver more Republican members of Congress by adding a rare mid-cycle redistricting request to the agenda for a special session starting next month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rep. Josey Garcia sits on the state legislature\u2019s redistricting committee. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m almost 100% sure that it will get added \u2026 [state GOP leaders] have shown us all session that they\u2019ve been in lockstep with what the [Trump] administration is doing,\u201d said state Rep. Josey Garcia (D-San Antonio), who serves on the Texas House\u2019s Committee on Redistricting<\/a>, where a potential redistricting bill would move.<\/p>\n

This round of redistricting wouldn\u2019t add any seats to the U.S. House from Texas, so the idea of redividing residents among existing districts has given some Texas Republican members whose districts could become more competitive<\/a> heartburn.<\/p>\n

But groups fighting Texas\u2019 current congressional maps<\/a> say change may be inevitable \u2014 and a mid-cycle redistricting could allow state leaders to remedy the problem before a court does it for them.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other civil rights groups argued to a federal court<\/a> that Texas\u2019 existing maps illegally split up voters of color \u2014 and asked that Latino-majority districts in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area be created as a remedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Republicans] realized that they might be in trouble, and that\u2019s why you\u2019re hearing calls from Governor Abbott about possibly calling a special session to redraw the lines,\u201d LULAC National President Domingo Garcia told the Report.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want more Republican congressmen\u2019<\/p>\n

Republicans currently control 25 of Texas\u2019 38 congressional seats, with one vacancy in a deep-blue Houston seat that had been held by the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston).<\/p>\n

To make more blue seats competitive for Republicans, most political watchers believe changes to the map would need to be in South Texas \u2014 traditionally Democratic territory that\u2019s been trending red in the Trump era<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy assumption is that it\u2019s going to be in the [Rio Grande] Valley,\u201d said Republican consultant Craig Murphy, who suggested South Texas could produce one or more Republican-friendly seats if the districts were redrawn. \u201cFrom San Antonio down, that\u2019s the area that has had the most dramatic changes since the last drawing of the maps.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Republicans tried hard to flip South Texas seats in 2022, but closed up shop<\/a> after their investments and enthusiastic candidates<\/a> fell flat.<\/p>\n

In a nod to the potentially changing landscape, this election cycle they\u2019ve already renewed interest in<\/a> ousting either U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) and U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-McAllen) \u2014 recruiting candidates<\/a> and attacking incumbents who\u2019ve fended off tough challenges<\/a> easily despite Trump\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can pick up Republican seats in Texas to make Congress stronger, after what the Democrats did to our country in the last four years, \u2026 I want more Republican congressmen,\u201d Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said<\/a> this week of the potential to redraw district lines.<\/p>\n

Voting rights advocates see an opportunity <\/p>\n

Civil rights groups say changing Texas\u2019 maps may be more complicated than just shoring up Republicans\u2019 top targets.<\/p>\n

Courts have already upheld that states can redraw their existing district boundaries outside of the traditional redistricting schedule \u2014 and also that they have broad authority to change them for partisan political purposes.<\/p>\n

But there are rules governing how political maps divide people based on race, and civil rights groups have had some limited success challenging Texas districts that unfairly diluted the power of voters of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re watching very closely \u2026 to make sure that our communities of color and our communities that are historically Democratic and low-income aren\u2019t going to be further victimized by the gerrymandering of the districts,\u201d Garcia said of the potential upcoming fight.<\/p>\n

During the special session, committee leaders would present a proposal subject to public comment and requiring approval from both chambers.<\/p>\n

\"\"State Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D-San Antonio) speaks at a campaign rally in 2022. Credit: Nick Wagner \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Garcia and state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D-San Antonio) are among the 15-member redistricting committee\u2019s<\/a> Democrats, who are already preparing how to engage the public in their fight.<\/p>\n

They see potential to make the maps more fair, but have little idea what to expect from Republican colleagues who Garcia said spent much of the session targeting people of color in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to drawing the lines and adding districts that will benefit Democrats and people of color, there\u2019s an apprehensiveness [from state leaders],\u201d she said. \u201cBut when it\u2019s coming down from a national agenda of making sure that our voices are silent, we\u2019re seeing more action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans have also become more bold about their efforts to use the process for politics, she said, pointing to Tarrant County Republicans\u2019 recent efforts<\/a> to redistrict their way to more power on their commissioners court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that there\u2019s no holds barred in terms of how things used to be done,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As both parties scrounge for opportunities among relatively few competitive congressional seats in 2026, a potential Texas redistricting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[17032,17033,17034,5229,17035,17036,17037,7202,7203,358,17038,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,17039,7594],"class_list":{"0":"post-17654","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-34th-congressional-district","11":"tag-america","12":"tag-barbara-gervin-hawkins","13":"tag-henry-cuellar","14":"tag-josey-garcia","15":"tag-san-antonio","16":"tag-sanantonio","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-2025-redistricting","19":"tag-top-story","20":"tag-tx","21":"tag-typedaily","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-vicente-gonzalez","29":"tag-wc-1000-1500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114752473216574249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17654","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=17654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}