Texas Senate Passes Redistricting Map Favoring Republicans
Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Texas Senate on Aug. 23 passed a bill that will redraw Texas’s congressional maps and increase Republicans’ hold on the state’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats.
Its passage in the early hours of Saturday morning came after a daylong session.
After passing the Republican-dominated upper chamber in an 18 to 11 party-line vote, the bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.
In line with a request from President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice, the bill would redraw the state’s congressional boundaries to favor Republicans.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Aug. 21 signed a legislative package to authorize a Nov. 4 referendum to redraw California’s congressional maps in favor of Democrats. The changes are expected to be approved in the Democratic stronghold.
The map could increase Democrats’ hold on California’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats, endangering several previously safe Republicans.
On Thursday evening, the state Senate’s Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting met to discuss the bill, voting 5–3 in favor of reporting the bill to the Senate with a favorable recommendation.
The Texas House of Representatives passed the legislation on Aug. 20, after the more than 50 Democrats who had left the state earlier returned after it became clear that California would approve a legislative response to Texas’s passage of the bill.
Those Democrats returned to the state after a two-week standoff, during which the state Legislature was unable to achieve a quorum and was therefore gridlocked.
They returned after two conditions were met: the introduction of a legislative response in California and the end of the first special session of the state Legislature, which had been declared by Abbott.
The Trump administration, through the Department of Justice (DOJ), has encouraged the Texas redistricting, claiming that some of Texas’s districts are illegal under the Voting Rights Act, civil rights legislation designed to increase participation in federal elections and prevent discriminatory or race-based voting restrictions.
Current boundaries run afoul of the Voting Rights Act by relying on racial demographics to group minority voters into “coalition districts,” where no single racial group forms a majority, according to the DOJ.
The Texas bill was initially delayed for two weeks when a walkout by 50 Democratic state House members denied Republicans the quorum needed for a legitimate vote.
Those Texas Democrats said the redistricting was an attempt to maintain control of the U.S. House in the upcoming midterm elections.
During the state Senate debate on Friday, some lawmakers repeated the criticisms that the new Texas map violates federal law by diluting Hispanic and black voting power and discriminating on the basis of race.
State Sen. Royce West (D-District 23) predicted the new map would reduce the number of African Americans representing Texas in Washington from four to two.
“I call that retrogression,” West said.
State Sen. Phil King (R-District 10) who sponsored the bill, said repeatedly he had not considered race and that lawyers had assured him the bill meets all legal requirements.
“From my perspective, why would I use racial data?” he told his fellow senators. “Voting history is just much more accurate and is well established as a legal way to draw maps.”
The Democratic National Convention announced on July 28 that it will be sending some 250,000 texts to voters and readying 30,000 grassroots organizers to reach persuadable Republican and independent Texans in key districts.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed on Aug. 4 to explore ways to redraw the state’s congressional maps in response to Texas’s mid-cycle redistricting efforts.
The push for redistricting in Texas, California, and other states has prompted many to claim that one or both parties is attempting to make partisan gains through a strategic redrawing of the congressional map—behavior known colloquially as “gerrymandering.”
Often, districts are described as “gerrymandered” when they are in an odd or unusual shape that seems designed to ensure a particular outcome.
The term originated in the United States in the early 19th century, and is derived from the name of former Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry’s salamander-shaped district.
According to a 2022 poll by The Economist and YouGov, two-thirds of Americans considered gerrymandering to be a “major problem” in the United States, with only 23 percent describing it as a “minor problem.”
Darlene McCormick Sanchez, Jackson Richman and Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 08/23/2025 – 23:20
