Texas lawmakers have redrawn congressional districts, shifting Republican voters into Democratic areas around Dallas and Houston without negatively impacting the districts of Republican Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Troy Nehls. Both Van Duyne and Nehls faced competitive races in 2020, but their districts were subsequently reconfigured in 2021 to become solidly Republican, and the initial state House map did not alter these gains.
Among the newly established majority-Black districts is the 18th Congressional District in Houston. This seat has a long history of portrayal by prominent Black Democratic members, including Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, Sheila Jackson Lee, and most recently, Sylvester Turner, whose passing in March created a vacancy. the proposed map further concentrates Democratic voters in this reliably Democratic district, were Harris secured 69% of the vote in 2024 and would have won 76% under the new boundaries.
The congressional seat currently held by Crockett in Dallas is also slated to become a majority-Black district.
The 18th District was one of four majority-minority congressional seats in Texas previously identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. Texas Republicans have contested this designation in court and used it as justification for pursuing mid-decade redistricting.
Any new redistricting map is expected to face legal challenges. Federal courts have consistently found that at least one of Texas’s redistricting maps has violated the Voting Rights Act in every decade since its enactment in the mid-1960s.The current map remains under legal challenge in federal court in El Paso, with no ruling issued to date.
