Congressional and statehouse maps redrawn by Republicans this year have been widely panned for diluting emerging battleground districts and making it harder for Democrats to get elected even as the state’s nonwhite, urban population skyrockets.
But the maps have a secondary effect: purging the increasingly fanatical Texas GOP of any member who deviates from the purity politics held sacred by the state’s top elected officials.
Enter moderate Republican Senator Kel Seliger, the long-serving representative of District 31 in the Panhandle and West Texas. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, joined by a who’s who of right-wing advocacy groups, have previously failed to oust Seliger by propping up primary challengers, but they finally have him cornered. The redrawn maps take aim at select counties that served as Seliger’s base, shifting his district toward unfamiliar counties in the hardscrabble Permian Basin and making it more difficult for him to hold his seat.
