AUSTIN, Texas — Legislators will take up redistricting this session, opening up the possibility for Republicans to further redraw districts in their favor.
The Texas Senate voted unanimously to take up redistricting, a once-in-a decade practice of redrawing political district boundaries to accommodate changes in population. The Legislature undertook the process in 2021, after 2020 census figures showed the state grew more than any other in the U.S. Many Democrats decried it as gerrymandering.
The prospect of redrawing district lines comes after litigation from Democratic Sens. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin and Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio. Both charged that 2021′s redistricting violated the Texas Constitution.
At the heart of their challenge was a matter of timing and COVID-19. The state constitution requires the Legislature to redraw district lines for the state’s 31 senators and 150 House representatives in the first regular session following the once-a-decade census.
However, because of pandemic-related issues, the Census Bureau issued the population count several months late. That led to the Legislature taking up the issue during a special session.
The provision does not apply to congressional seats and Texas’ 38 congressional seats will not be affected, multiple senators confirmed.
“We won on the law, and now we are having a do-over,” Eckhardt said.
After the GOP-led effort tilted the effort further in favor of Republicans in the House and Senate, Gutierrez and Eckhardt sued with a focus on a Fort Worth district that was radically changed to favor a Republican.
Midterms took place with new district lines that critics argued gave no further representation to non-white voters, who fueled about 95% of Texas’ population growth between 2010 and 2020, according to the census.
Redistricting experts have described what took place as a “defensive gerrymander.” Republicans largely shored up their advantages in districts that had been growing more Democratic. The process resulted in making most of Texas’ districts noncompetitive election contests between the two parties.
The House did not take any action regarding redistricting Wednesday.
Gutierrez said he expects senators to approve exactly the same district boundaries for their chamber as the ones they approved in 2021. Gutierrez said that was evidenced by the Senate drawing lots to determine which senators would serve two-year terms and which would serve four-year terms to stagger elections after all seats were up for election last year because the districts were redrawn.
“Now that we have drawn straws, the die has been cast,” he said, noting that anyone who drew a four-year term likely would fight a redistricting process that would require them all to run for election again in 2024. (Gutierrez drew a four-year term.)
“I do not believe a can of worms will be opened,” he said.
The House will not be encumbered by any of those pressures. All seats are up for election every two years.
