Based on 2024 election results, North Texas Democrats would lose one seat in Congress.
By Philip Jankowski and Gromer Jeffers Jr.
Staff Writers
AUSTIN — Texas Republicans appear poised to follow through on a congressional redistricting plan filed Wednesday that would flip five Democratic seats to Republican control.
The plan would eliminate one Democratically held seat each from Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and the Austin/San Antonio area. District lines would also be redrawn in South Texas, pushing two seats currently held by Democrats toward stronger Republican majorities, according to an analysis based on 2024 election results.
The map’s release unleashed intense criticism from Democrats, raised the prospect of blue states like California redrawing their boundaries to offset Republican gains in Texas, and intensified a threat by Democrats in the Texas Legislature to flee the state in order to delay or prevent a vote on the plan.
Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, filed a redistricting bill Wednesday morning, submitting a district map that would drastically reshape North Texas’ congressional districts and possibly pit Democratic incumbent U.S. Reps. Julie Johnson and Marc Veasey against each other in a primary battle.
Under the proposal, Veasey’s district would be entirely in Dallas County. Veasey, the only Democrat in Congress from Tarrant County, immediately criticized the report.
“Let’s be clear – this map is racist, it’s illegal, and it’s part of a long, ugly tradition of trying to keep Black and Brown Texans from having a voice,” the Fort Worth congressman said. “What Donald Trump and Greg Abbott are doing isn’t about democracy – it’s about consolidating power.”
The map comes two days after a House redistricting committee concluded regional hearings on the proposal, which faced near universal disapproval from hundreds of Texans who testified at events in Arlington, Houston and Austin. The House committee is set to hold a public hearing on the plan Friday at the Capitol.
President Donald Trump has called on Texas lawmakers to flip five Democratic seats to Republican control to help the GOP maintain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Midterms generally favor the party out of power in the White House, and in 2026 are expected to favor Democrats.
The maps achieve a five-seat swing largely by shaving slivers of Republican strongholds from ruby red districts and placing them inside three urban districts. The plan also further condenses some urban Democratic strongholds.
The result would create two majority Black districts – Congressional District 30, currently represented by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, and Congressional District 18 in Houston, a vacant seat that was represented by Rep. Sylverster Turner until his death in March. They would be the only two majority Black congressional districts in Texas.
More subtle changes are made to two Democrat-held districts in South Texas, where Republicans appear to be betting their gains among Latino communities will hold steady.
The three urban districts see the most drastic changes. Johnson’s seat, for instance, is a relatively compact district containing parts of Dallas surrounding White Rock Lake, as well as suburban areas in Richardson, Addison and Plano that have shifted toward Democrats in recent years.
It would be redrawn to stretch from Carrollton eastward to the rural city of Gilmer, a two-and-a-half-hour drive between the two cities. The resulting district would shift 41 percentage points to the right, transforming from a district that heavily favored former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024’s election to one that would have voted for Trump by nearly 18 points.
Johnson’s office said the map would dilute the voting power of non-white communities by fragmenting them among multiple districts.
“Texas is a majority-minority state. Instead of empowering those voters, Washington, D.C. drew maps to erase them,” Johnson said. “It’s strategic, intentional, and violates voting rights. This map is an insult to our democracy and our voters’ intelligence.
Gov. Greg Abbott added redistricting to a special session agenda after the Department of Justice sent a letter to Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stating that four districts, including Veasey’s, violated the law because they created illegal non-white coalition districts.
Republicans, including Paxton, have said publicly and in court documents that the districts did not violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, they have said they support the rare mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts.
Being able to count on five more Republicans from Texas would blunt any Democratic gains. However, several states led by Democrats, including California, are mulling redistricting to offset a Texas redistribution of congressional seats.
Abbott’s office would not comment on the maps when contacted on Wednesday.
Hunter, the state representative who filed the congressional map proposal, refused to elaborate on the plan when asked about the map at the Capitol Wednesday.
“I won’t be giving comments until after we go through the process and I say things to the members,” Hunter said. Other Republican members of the House redistricting committee also refused to comment Wednesday when approached at the Capitol.
U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, said she was comfortable with the way her district was redrawn. She was first elected in 2020, when the district was considered a toss up. In 2021 it was drawn to lean more Republican.
“I love my district right now,” Van Duyne said during a joint interview with The Dallas Morning News and KXAS NBC 5. “We spent the last three years since redistricting getting out there and getting to know the constituents, businesses, their pressure points, but I also look at North Texas as home, and so it’s not going to be all that much different.”
Van Duyne defended the Legislature’s decision to redraw congressional boundaries.
“When you think about how other states have handled it, I think they’re totally within their purview to do that,” Van Duyne said of the Legislature’s redistricting effort. “It’s not without precedent. The Supreme Court has found that it’s absolutely legal to do so. That’s something that the courts, that the Legislature chooses to do. We’re going to be 100% supportive of it.”
Several state Democratic lawmakers have said they might flee the state to prevent a vote on the maps. Democrats used the tactic during the last mid-cycle redistricting in 2003. However, the effort only delayed the passage of the maps.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu, D-Houston, said in a statement that Democrats will fight with “every tool available to us.”
That has included meeting with the governors of three left-leaning states – California, Illinois and New Mexico – to discuss what is happening in Texas. Democratic lawmakers, including Wu, have stopped short of stating that they have encouraged those states to redraw their congressional districts to counteract any Republican gains in Texas. However, the leaders of those states have taken notice.
“The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on social media after the maps were released.
The redistricting effort also appeared to be catalyzing North Texas Democrats and organizers across the state.
“We expected Republicans to try to steal and cheat, but also we are prepared,” said Kardal Coleman, chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party. “We’re on the offense on this deal. We’re not waiting for them to set the narrative or tell us how it’s going to be.”
That has included meeting with the governors of three left-leaning states – California, Illinois and New Mexico – to discuss what is happening in Texas. Democratic lawmakers, including Wu, have stopped short of stating that they have encouraged those states to redraw their congressional districts to counteract any Republican gains in Texas. However, the leaders of those states have taken notice.
“The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on social media after the maps were released.
The redistricting effort also appeared to be catalyzing North Texas Democrats and organizers across the state.
“We expected Republicans to try to steal and cheat, but also we are prepared,” said Kardal Coleman, chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party. “We’re on the offense on this deal. We’re not waiting for them to set the narrative or tell us how it’s going to be.”
Kathleen Thompson, executive director of the liberal group Progress Texas, said the new map violated voting rights.
“In one week, patriotic Americans will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act passed under President and Texas Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson. Republicans have been working to overturn it since, and today their racist redistricting map is out,” Thompson wrote in a statement. “Now, instead of working on emergency items like flash flood mitigation and warning systems, Texas Republicans are focused on stealing your voting power. Sixty years later, white guys are still calling each other and saying how Brown and Black citizens can vote.”
This report has been updated throughout. Staff writer Aarón Torres contributed to this report.
Philip Jankowski has covered government, politics and criminal justice in Texas for 17 years. He previously worked for the Austin American-Statesman, the Killeen Daily Herald and the Taylor Press. Philip is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
The Howard University graduate and Chicago native has covered four presidential campaigns and written extensively about local, state and national politics. Before The News, he was a reporter at The Kansas City Star and The Chicago Defender. You can catch Gromer every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on NBC 5’s Lone Star Politics.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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