Following a lengthy session on Wednesday, Texas House Republicans approved a new congressional map that will increase the party’s number of seats in the US House of Representatives. The districts surrounding Austin would be drastically altered by the new borders, which may also affect who represents Utah in Congress.
In an effort to thwart Republican attempts to redraw congressional districts, Democratic lawmakers in the Texas House fled the state on August 3 in an attempt to break quorum, or deny the Texas House the 100 members it needed to conduct business. The action concludes a difficult time for the state legislature. Following the U.S. Census, redistricting typically takes place every ten years. Austin is now represented by two districts instead of three due to the changed boundaries.
Governor Greg Abbott launched this campaign after President Donald Trump requested Texas Republicans to seek more U.S. House seats, and since the new borders cleared the Texas House, they are almost certain to pass the Texas Senate, which advanced similar boundaries on August 12.
UT students and elected Democratic officials who spoke at public meetings last month were among those who opposed the proposed maps, arguing that they would unfairly favor Republican candidates. According to adjunct law professor Randy Erben, Texas Democrats have promised to fight the plans in federal court, but they probably won’t be successful unless they can demonstrate that the maps unjustly reduce the voting power of racial minorities. According to Erben, the U.S. Supreme Court permits lawmakers to alter the maps for solely political reasons.
The maps are probably here to stay, according to U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat who covers UT and West Campus.
According to Doggett, there is no question that this will become Texas law in a matter of days. Those will be contested in federal court right away, as they ought to be. I will admit that the results of Texas’s previous two redistricting attempts are not very promising.
Austin is currently represented by Doggett, Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat who represents much of Austin east of Interstate 35 and parts of San Antonio, and Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican who represents the Austin suburbs and sizable areas of Travis County.
Since both of their political careers began in Austin, lawmakers’ proposed map completely removed Casar’s district from Austin, forcing Doggett and Casar to run for Doggett’s present seat. Doggett said he plans to compete for reelection and requested Casar to run in a redesigned district located in San Antonio that is far less favorable to Democrats. Doggett has served in various capacities for more than 50 years, representing parts of Austin.
What is the rationale for Congressman Casar giving Trump control of his CD 35 district? Doggett uttered those words. We can stop Trump from winning this district if we work hard and specifically appeal to the district’s mainly Hispanic population.
But in an email that Punchbowl News was able to get, Casar’s office said that he would seek for reelection in Austin.Casar was a member of the Austin City Council before. Next week, Casar and Doggett will both be speaking at UT.
According to Erben, state lawmakers frequently use pairing two members in the same district to unseat incumbents from opposing parties.
According to Erben, when two incumbents are paired in the same district, sometimes one of them says, “I don’t want to run against you,” and other times, “Let’s get it on, and I’ll see you at the ballot box.” It’s typically quite costly and highly contentious (if) they both run.
