Bastrop - Cedar Creek Edition | October 2025

State

BY HANNAH NORTON

What to know about Texas’ new congressional districts

Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’ new congres- sional map into law Aug. 29, declaring in a video posted to social media that “Texas is now more red in the United States Congress.” Under Texas’ current congressional boundaries, Republicans hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. State lawmakers have said the new map will help Republicans gain up to ve more seats during the 2026 midterm elections. Texas Democrats have called the mid-decade redistricting eort unconstitutional and “racially discriminatory,” while Republicans have asserted that it “complies with the law.” The details State lawmakers began redistricting this summer, after President Donald Trump asked Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their congressional maps to help Republicans maintain a narrow majority in the U.S. House. Texas’ new map redraws 37 of the state’s 38 con- gressional districts. Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican who led the redistricting plan, said the “primary changes” were focused on ve districts: TX-09, TX-28, TX-32, TX-34 and TX-35. “Each of these newly drawn districts now trend Republican,” Hunter told state House lawmakers Aug. 20. “While there’s no guarantee of electoral success, Republicans will now have an opportu- nity to potentially win these ... new districts.” The debate After Republicans unveiled the map in late July, House Democrats held a two-week walkout that stalled, but did not stop, the map’s passage. Democratic lawmakers have said the new congressional map will “dilute” minorities’ voting

Current Austin district map

New district map

Williamson 31

Williamson

Travis 10

Travis

21 Hays

Bastrop

Bastrop 27

Hays

NOTE: NUMBERS INDICATE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

SOURCE: TEXAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCILCOMMUNITY IMPACT

discussed in court two months earlier. After state senators approved the map Aug. 23, the League of United Latin American Citizens and a group of Texas residents led a lawsuit asking that the map be blocked from becoming law. Three federal judges, who are also considering legal challenges to Texas’ current congressio- nal map, held an Oct. 1-10 hearing on the suit in El Paso. A court decision had not been released before press time. “We have high condence that the courts will actually nd these maps to be illegal,” Rep. Gene Wu, DHouston, told reporters Aug. 18. “The question is more about the timing of it and whether or not there’s enough time left.”

power by dividing historically Black and Hispanic communities into multiple congressional districts. “Texans and Americans all across the country are watching,” Rep. Chris Turner, DGrand Prairie, said on the House oor Aug. 20. “They know this map before us is a calculated maneuver to diminish the voices of the very communities that power Texas.” Republicans have maintained that the map was drafted to benet GOP congressional candidates and that race was not considered when the new lines were drawn. What’s next Texas’ new congressional map is set to take eect in early December, although it was

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