After passing the Texas House, the redistricting bill has now passed the Texas Senate and is headed to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk to sign.
A Republican plan to redraw Texas congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections is on its way to the governor’s desk after passing the Senate early Saturday morning, paving the way for a shake-up in the state’s U.S. House delegation.
Senators passed the congressional redistricting plan on a party-line, 18-11 vote, following hours of debate and a threatened filibuster that fizzled.
The new map, drawn to improve Republican political performance, adds five new GOP-opportunity seats.
State Sen. Phil King (R–Weatherford) sponsored the redistricting plan, House Bill 4 by State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi), which the House passed on Wednesday.
“The area of redistricting law is very robust and gets very complex, very quickly,” King opened Friday morning. “We’re not in a courtroom today.”
Yet throughout the day, Democrats pressed King on specific redistricting legalities and made clear they intend to challenge the map in court.
King said HB 4 is “legal under all applicable law” and meets the requirements of “one person, one vote” and compactness.
He repeatedly emphasized that the map was drawn based on partisan political performance, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is permissible, not racial data.
“In contrast to the complications that are involved with race-based redistricting, political performance is really a pretty easy map to draw, and it’s absolutely permissible as a basis for drawing electoral districts,” said King.
The map flips five congressional districts from Democrat- to Republican-leaning: CD9 in Houston, CD28 in the Rio Grande Valley, CD32 in Dallas, CD34 in coastal South Texas, and CD35 in San Antonio.
I analyzed the effects of district movement on their incumbents here.
“There’s no question Democrats are not in favor of this map… because it elects more Republicans,” said King. “It was also very clear from testimony that a lot of people want us to create maps that reflect specific percentages of ethnic groups, and that’s illegal. We can’t do that.”
State Sen. Adam Hinojosa (R–Corpus Christi), the first Republican to hold Senate District 27 since Reconstruction, said the new map—which increases majority-minority voting districts—gives South Texas Hispanics “a voice that reflects their values, not outdated assumptions about race or party.”
“This is not a racial shift. This is a values shift, and no amount of shouting racism is going to change that,” said Hinojosa.
For over half a century, Democrats have used the Voting Rights Act as a tool to racially gerrymander themselves legislative majorities. More recently, Republican have flipped the script on them, concentrating minority voters in deep blue urban districts to make other districts more favorable to Republicans while fulfilling the letter of the Voting Rights Act. Then Democrats launched the Petteway v. Galveston County lawsuit trying to save one Galveston County commissioner’s seat, whereupon the Supreme Court ruled that those black/Hispanic coalition minority districts carved out to benefit the Democratic Party were unconstitutional.
Depending on only partisan affiliation date, Texas Republicans have now produced districts that are notably more compact than logical than many Democratic Party racially gerrymandered maps. Texas Republicans have garnered five additional Republican seats and helped America move closer to colorblind society. I count that as a win-win.
Tags: 2026 Election, 32nd Congressional District, 35th Congressional District, 9th Congressional District, Adam Hinojosa, Austin, Democrats, Gerrymander, Greg Abbott, Petteway v. Galveston County, Phil King, Redistricting, Republicans, Supreme Court, Texas, Texas 28th Congressional District, Texas 34th Congressional District, Todd Hunter, Voting Rights Act
“more compact than logical than many”
Should that be “compact AND logical”?
“This is not a racial shift. This is a values shift, and no amount of shouting racism is going to change that,’ said Hinojosa.”
Much of the cultural disparity between Latinos and Blacks involves their work ethic: many Blacks view manual labor as a vestige of slavery and grow sulky if pushed to work harder; Latinos perceive manual labor as a “means of grace” for good works leading to salvation. If pushed to work harder, they declare a religious holiday or stop for a siesta.
In short, the Mexican laborer views work as a necessary evil, whereas Blacks are predisposed to view strenuous labor as an oppressive artifact.
Consequently, the Latino outperforms his Black coworker. This allows the Mexican immigrant to more readily climb out of poverty. Gradually, he adopts middle-class values. Eventually, he votes Republican.
You can readily witness this divide in Los Angeles. Latinos have driven Black residents from the neighborhoods they once dominated. Prison riots result in Black inmates being murdered by Latinos.
The political affiliation of Blacks and Latinos is fundamentally different and this difference is making itself felt. 55% of Latino males voted for Trump this election. This reflects a tidal change in attitudes toward Republicans and the redistricting map of Texas closely mirrors this trend.
“Biden told more than 800 ticketed supporters that Romney wants to repeal the financial regulations enacted after the Wall Street crash of 2008. ‘He’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules – unchain Wall Street!’ Biden said. Then he added, ‘They’re going to put you all back in chains’ with their economic and regulatory policies.”
How awful! Blacks are always only one election away from being being returned to imprisonment and servitude. The shadow of slavery continues to haunt them and their political leadership feeds that fear. Today’s laborer is tomorrow ‘s slave.
It is better to avoid all danger by subsisting on the dole.
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