By Lauren Burke
President Trump told Texas Republicans on a conference call on the morning of July 15 that the GOP will attempt to create five new Republican seats in a “mid-decade redistricting” in Texas. Next week, the Texas legislature will consider the move. Republicans control the state legislature in Texas by a 20-11 margin in the Texas Senate and an 88-62 margin in the Texas House. But Texas is a majority minority state. The congressional maps in Texas were last drawn in 2021. To redraw the maps now would be highly unusual. Republicans are expecting to have a great deal of difficulty keeping control of the U.S. House as the 2026 midterms loom in the future.
Proposed cuts to health care, tariff policy changes, inflation, a record number of farms going bankrupt, and cuts to federal jobs are all likely to be factors in whether or not voters will turn Republicans out of power in Congress. During a press conference on the morning of July 15 at Democratic National Committee headquarters, members of the Texas delegation spoke about the threat of changes in congressional districts and the recent July 5 flood in Texas that has killed at least 134 people. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) spoke pointedly on the issue of Texas redistricting and the political state of play. “I want you all to understand the makeup of my state. The state is a majority minority state, and what this legislature historically has done is what they plan to do again — is to dilute the voices of people of color in order to make sure that they can get to where they’re trying to go,” Rep. Crockett said. She stood alongside a large group of members that included Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, and a number of members of the Texas delegation.
“We only have four seats that are represented by Black folk, where the vast majority of the people that get to decide who they have represent them are Black. They decided to attack three of the four seats that we have in the state. They decided to go after a Latina. They are specifically deciding to splinter the communities of common interest, as well as just blatantly say we are going to dilute minority voices. So we know that the courts, ever since we’ve had a Voting Rights Act, have always found this state to be intentionally discriminatory. That is what they are going to do. I need people of color to understand that the scheme of the Republicans has consistently been to make sure that they mute our voices so that they can go ahead and have an oversized say in this. I fully anticipate that’s exactly where they’re going with this map. It’s the only way to do it. We didn’t understand how we got to the map that they gave us last time because that state was grown by 95% people of color. They went out of their way to make sure that we got zero new seats for people of color. That’s exactly what they’re going to do this time,” Rep. Crockett added.
