Redistricting is among the priorities in Abbott\u2019s special legislative session that started Monday. The process typically occurs after a 10-year Census, ensuring that districts have roughly equal populations and reflect shifts in demographics. As any students of history know, however,\u00a0redistricting can be used to manipulate election outcomes through a process called gerrymandering<\/a>.<\/p>\n The legislature convened for about nine minutes Monday, adjourning until 10 a.m. Thursday. House and Senate committees on disaster preparedness and flooding are scheduled to meet this week. Redistricting was not mentioned during Monday’s brief session other than in the reading of the governor’s proclamation<\/a> that listed all 18 items on the special session agenda. <\/p>\n A July 7 letter from the U.S. Department of Justice to Abbott suggests that the Lone Star State should redraw its district boundaries in order to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act. Houston Democrats say they’re certain it\u2019s a political ploy<\/a> by President Donald Trump to \u201cpower grab\u201d Texas Congressional seats and flip them red. <\/p>\n The president told reporters on July 15 that he wants\u00a0Republicans to get five more seats out of a new Texas map \u2014 and that other states could follow.\u00a0\u201cTexas would be the biggest one,\u201d Trump said. \u201cJust a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Congresswoman\u00a0Sylvia Garcia, who represents Houston\u2019s District 29, outlined\u00a0on a July 16 Zoom call with party officials\u00a0the potential damage a mid-decade redistricting could cause. <\/p>\n \u201cThe felon in the White House wants to make sure that he controls and has the power that he needs to get his agenda done,\u201d she said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want a Democratic-controlled Congress, and he knows that right now, the Big Ugly Bill that got passed that made all those cuts, is in trouble. People don\u2019t like that bill.\u201d <\/p>\n Texas Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu took it a step further, saying, \u201cIf we do not have the ability to stop Donald Trump, more people in our community will die.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWith the little power that he had with a two-seat majority \u2014 one of the narrowest majorities in the history of the United States \u2014 he was able to pass the Big Beautiful Bill and destroy our country and destroy the lives of the people around us,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n The One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a>, narrowly approved by U.S. Congress earlier this month with no support from Democrats, made significant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps while funneling $150 billion to border enforcement and deportations. Vice President J.D. Vance had to cast a tie-breaking vote for the bill in the Senate. The measure was approved 218-214 in the House. <\/p>\n The DOJ\u2019s letter to Abbott regarding redistricting was discussed at length in last week\u2019s Zoom call hosted by Garcia, Wu, and Texas Sen. Carol Alvarado, all Democrats. In the letter, DOJ officials say \u201cthe revised map must be completed promptly with proposed draft lines submitted by August 7.\u201d <\/p>\n That means negotiations are likely to move rapidly with a vote on a proposed map in the next couple of weeks, officials on the call said. <\/p>\n
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Protesters rallied Saturday at Moody Park against Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to redistrict mid-decade.<\/p>\n
Photo by April Towery
<\/p>\n \n \u201cHe\u2019s targeting nothing but the minority urban districts,\u201d Garcia said, noting that the DOJ letter references Districts 9, 18, and 29, which cover portions of Houston, and District 33 in Fort Worth. District 9 is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Al Green. District 18 has been vacant since the March death of former Rep. Sylvester Turner, with a special election set for November. Garcia represents District 29, and District 33 is held by Democrat Marc Veasey. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re saying our [districts] were unconstitutionally put together using race as the basis,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n If Turner had still been in office, or if the governor had called a special election<\/a> to fill the Congressional District 18 seat immediately following Turner’s death, the Big Beautiful Bill might not have passed, Dow said at Saturday’s rally.<\/p>\n Several Congressional District 18 hopefuls, including Robert Slater, Rain Eatmon and Zoe Cadore, held a virtual press conference<\/a> Friday to express their opposition to redistricting. <\/p>\n But political experts say that new district maps approved in 2021 have already \u201csqueezed as much juice from the orange as they can,\u201d so creating new Republican districts will be nearly impossible. <\/p>\n \n Texas added 4 million residents in the decade prior to the 2020 Census and gained two congressional districts as a result of 2021 redistricting. Of the population growth, 95 percent was among communities of color, with more than half of the growth in the Latino community.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say probably the whole reason we are doing this in Texas mid-decade is because President Trump wants to gain extra padding for the midterms,\u201d said Ren\u00e9e Cross, senior executive director at the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, on a July 16 episode<\/a> of the Houston Matters radio show. \u201cTraditionally, the party in power has trouble during the midterms. <\/p>\n \u201cTrump has an extra incentive to try to make sure Republicans keep control in Congress because he doesn\u2019t want investigations. He doesn\u2019t want impeachment hearings, which are sure to happen if the Democrats take Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n Cross added that the two Congressional seats added in 2021 went to white Republicans, showing that \u201cthey probably drew about as much as they could to favor Republicans, to favor incumbents.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a whole lot of wiggle room,\u201d Cross said. \u201cI sure don\u2019t see a way they can get five more Republican seats. In short, this may end up hurting the Republican Party. If it does, they don\u2019t call that a gerrymander anymore. It\u2019s called a dummymander.\u201d <\/p>\n Alvarado emphasized that Texas lawmakers haven\u2019t seen any proposed redistricting maps. At the time of last week\u2019s Zoom call, Abbott had not yet appointed a redistricting committee and no one knew for sure what would be proposed. <\/p>\n So lawmakers don\u2019t know how the Trump administration plans to move registered Democrats into majority-Republican districts, weakening districts like 9, 18, 29, and 33, without violating the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting and was signed into law in 1965 as part of the civil rights movement. <\/p>\n
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U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, center, and Texas Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu met last week with Houston Democrats for a Zoom call on redistricting.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Garcia said she suspects Trump\u2019s endgame is to eliminate the Voting Rights Act. Legal challenges are inevitable but they take years to litigate. Testimony is currently underway in an El Paso redistricting case<\/a> alleging that the maps approved in 2021 discriminated against some Black and Latino voters. <\/p>\n The special session should be focused, first and foremost, on better preparation for floods like the devastating July 4 Hill Country event, Alvarado said. That\u2019s on the agenda, but many surmise it was a ruse to get Democrats to the Capitol so a quorum would be present for a vote on redistricting. <\/p>\n \u201cThere has only been one other time that I can recall in Texas history where [mid-decade redistricting] was done and that was in 2003 when then-Congressman Tom DeLay strong-armed Republicans into entrenching more power for Republicans,” Alvarado said. \u201cWhy are they doing this? Because they are afraid that they will lose seats in the midterms. <\/p>\n \u201cThey are afraid that people will wake up and realize all the cuts they\u2019ve made to Medicare and Medicaid, how it\u2019s hurt farmers, how the tariffs have hurt the business community and consumers, the tactics on immigration and deportation, all those things, they\u2019re realizing that these may not be popular things and people may vote for Democrats in the midterms.\u201d <\/p>\n Wu added that the Trump administration has likely seen a shift in support and, \u201cinstead of better leadership, they want to cheat.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThey want to throw out the last remnants of what makes us a true democracy,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re basically saying, we\u2019re not going to let the voters pick their leaders. We\u2019re going to let leaders pick their voters. If Texas falls, every red state with a Republican governor, Republican Senate, Republican House, is going to do this across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no legal reason or court order to redistrict, Alvarado said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery Texan, especially Houstonians, ought to be furious because they\u2019re targeting several districts right here in our backyard,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
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Protesters rallied Saturday at Moody Park against Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to redistrict mid-decade.<\/p>\n
Photo by April Towery
<\/p>\n The special session lasts 30 days but Abbott can call back lawmakers as many times as he wants. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be easy for [Republicans] because they\u2019re going to fold like a cheap suit and take the map that Trump gives them and the White House provides to them,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cMy guess is in the first week we\u2019ll start having committee hearings and whether or not there\u2019s a map, I believe the Senate will roll pretty fast as it usually does and be done with it in the first week or two.\u201d <\/p>\n Garcia said she\u2019s seen maps on social media that showed her district extending east to Nacogdoches and Orange, but cautioned party precinct chairs to check the source when they see a map because nothing has been issued from the governor\u2019s office yet. <\/p>\n \u201cAll of us are vulnerable as Democrats because they\u2019re going to do everything to get to five districts,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce you tweak something in one district, it impacts another, so all our districts are going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n Although four Democratic districts were mentioned in the DOJ letter, Abbott and Republican legislators could make last-minute changes, Wu said, adding that he\u2019s heard the maps won\u2019t be filed until after public hearings<\/a> are held, \u201cbecause they want to pull a fast one.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe most likely thing they\u2019ll do is they\u2019ll wait to file the maps until they\u2019ve had a hearing and everyone is tired of talking about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be something that\u2019s not too bad and then right before they vote, they\u2019ll switch it out. It\u2019ll end up being terrible. They\u2019ll drop it at the last moment. Be careful. Even if they release something, do not put any faith that that\u2019s actually what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, announced Monday he’s been appointed by Abbott to chair the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting. Three public hearings<\/a> are scheduled, with one at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 26, at the University of Houston. Indivisible Fort Bend County is organizing a peaceful demonstration<\/a> from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, also at the UH campus.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/redistricting.webp\")
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