(NEW YORK) — After a long day of debate, the Texas House of Representatives passed a Republican-favored congressional map Wednesday evening that could flip five districts red by merging Democratic seats in the Houston, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth areas to form new Republican-leaning seats and by making two Rio Grande Valley districts currently held by Democrats more competitive.
Districts currently held by Democratic Reps. Al Green, Marc Veasey, Julie Johnson, Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett are potentially targeted.
The vote came weeks after state Democrats decried the unorthodox mid-decade redistricting as blatant gerrymandering to increase the number of GOP congressional seats.
The new map does not appear to significantly weaken any GOP-held seats but experts have said it would rely on the durability of Hispanic support for Republicans in 2024 to carry into next year’s midterms. The maps have gone through some small adjustments since being first introduced in July.
It is likely that the redistricting plan, which was pushed by President Donald Trump, will pass. The map could pass the state Senate as soon as the end of the week and would then go to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
In a press conference after the vote, House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu acknowledged that Democrats had lost this round.
“This part of the fight is over, but it is merely the first chapter,” Wu said, adding later that a lawsuit against the new maps will be coming together soon but not until after Abbott signs the legislation.
House Democrats attempted to stall deliberations for hours during Wednesday’s floor session before the final vote with various long shot amendment proposals. Wu proposed an amendment to table consideration of the maps until the Jeffrey Epstein files are released by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, but Wu’s amendment was dismissed as not germane to the matter at hand. Members also voted down an amendment from Rep. Chris Turner to kill the bill and several others attempted to get amendments to either table or scuttle the maps, all to no avail.
Before the final vote, Democrats decried Republicans’ efforts as undemocratic and said they were were working solely at the behest of Trump.
“You may not understand gerrymandering, you may not understand redistricting, but I hope you understand lying, cheating and stealing, because this is what people do, people like Donald Trump, people like the Republican Party of Texas, when they can’t win, they cheat,” Wu said.
Democratic Rep. Joe Moody said, “These maps are deepening the struggle for communities of color that will only worsen because one small man in D.C. demanded it. This is where division becomes dictatorship, the government against the people. Some people here are doing so much winning that they can’t see what we’re all losing.”
Democratic Rep. Harold Dutton told Republicans, “I don’t think you’ll ever win. I think you’ll win perhaps a battle, but the war, the war, you will always remember that the war will be won by right and justice.”
During the hours-long comments from Democrats who accused Republicans of pushing forward with the maps without their input as they pitched various amendments, GOP Rep. Todd Hunter, who authored the bill, snapped back — particularly after Rep. Gervin Hawkins made similar insinuations — that the House was unable to get any work done because Democrats fled the state.
“You own the walkout, you said you did that, but don’t come into this body and say we didn’t include you. You left for 18 days, and that’s wrong,” Hunter said.
The special session was delayed after Democrats left the state to avoid a quorum, despite threats of arrest from Abbott and other Republican leaders.
Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum. All 88 House Republicans voted for the bill and 52 of the 62 Democrats in the House voted against it.
A handful of Texas House Democrats refused law enforcement escorts to ensure they wouldn’t leave the state again. They stayed overnight in the Texas House in solidarity with state Rep. Nicole Collier, who had refused to sign a “permission slip” allowing her to leave the state Capitol with a law enforcement escort.
“Look I’m not gonna lie. I want to cry, but I’m too angry,” Collier said after the House vote. “I want to cry, but I’m too furious.”
She added, “My feet hurt, my back aches, but I think about the people who have no home, have no bed to sleep in, who have no job to work at. I think about the people who don’t earn livable wages. I think about the people who don’t have health care. I can fix my back, but what are we gonna do for them? … The fact that I’m still mad, angry and furious means that I still want to fight.”
The Texas state Capitol also dealt with a social media threat Tuesday night that led to the evacuation of grounds and the building, but Democratic lawmakers who were already in the building remained inside.
Following the vote, Abbott said he was planning to add proposed legislation to the special session that in the future would punish legislators who deny a quorum.
“We need to ensure that rogue lawmakers cannot hijack the important business of Texans during a legislative session by fleeing the state,” Abbot said in a statement.
Republicans continued to take victory laps over the bill passing the Texas House — and even before it passed, were sounding a defiant note.
“You will not silence the majority in the state of Texas. You can throw your tantrum, you can leave, you can run, and you can ignore the will of the rest of the voters,” Republican state Rep. Katrina Pierson said before the bill passed its final vote in the House. “But it’s honestly time to pick a new narrative. The racist rhetoric is old.”
Abbott, who had placed redistricting on the agenda for both of the special legislative sessions he called, wrote in a statement congratulating Republican House members that Democrats had “shirked their duty, in futility.”
“I congratulate Speaker Burrows and the Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives for passing congressional districts that better reflect the actual votes of Texans,” Abbott wrote. “While Democrats shirked their duty, in futility, and ran away to other states, Republicans stayed the course, stayed at work and stayed true to Texas. I will sign this bill once it passes the Senate and gets to my desk.”
California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been pushing a plan to draw new congressional maps in California in response to Texas or to other Republican-led states redrawing theirs, wrote in a post on X, “Congratulations to @GregAbbott_TX — you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lapdogs. Shredding our nation’s founding principles. What a legacy.”
In another post, he wrote simply, “It’s on, Texas.”
California’s legislature is set to take up and vote on redistricting legislation on Thursday.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in her own post, wrote, “Game on.” Hochul has expressed support for redrawing New York’s congressional maps, but state legislators have said the earliest maps could be in effect is likely 2028.
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