Texas Redistricting Bill Map Would Give
Republicans Three to Seven New Seats
Capitol Inside
July 30, 2025
A powerful Texas Republican lawmaker who used to be a Democrat proposed a new U.S. House map for the Lone Star State on Wednesday with a handful of Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in a plan that could give the GOP as many as seven additional seats or a net gain of three in the worst scenario.
State Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi submitted the revised congressional map for consideration in House Bill 4 in a move that will give the Legislature 20 days for public hearings in special redistricting panels and votes in committee and on the chamber floors.
Hunter, who chairs the Calendars Committee, is a member of the Select Congressional Redistricting Committee. But Hunter and the other Republicans on the remap committees had little or nothing to say up to now in public hearings that the special House panel conducted in the past week on the GOP's remap effort that President Donald Trump ordered he party's legislators in Austin to undertake.
The proposed plan that's designated as C-2308 would put the GOP in position to oust Democratic U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, Lizzie Fletcher of Houston, Julie Johnson of Dallas and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth. A pair of Austin Democrats - U.S. Reps. Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett - are paired in a single district in the Hunter plan.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzales of Brownsville and Al Green of Houston could be in peril as well on the proposed map that has them paired with Republican U.S. Reps. Monica de la Cruz of McAllen and Wesley Hunt of Houston in districts with more white residents than the Democrats represent now. The GOP could end up with a net gain of three seats if Hunt and de la Cruz lost to the Democrats in the districts proposed in HB 4.
Republicans have had their eye on the South Texas district that Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo represents. Cuellar was indicted earlier this year on an array of charges including money laundering and bribery. But the proposed plan that Hunter submitted appears to keep Cuellar's district safely in the hands of Democrats by cutting the number of white residents in half.
Castro is paired on the map with Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin in a district with a population that's 54 percent white. Johnson would land in a district with GOP U.S. Rep. Beth VanDuyne of Dallas on the proposed map. Veasey and GOP U.S. Rep. Roger Williams of Weatherford are paired in a district that appears safely Republican in HB 4. Fletcher would end up in a district that's heavily Republican.
Candidates for Congress don't have to live in the districts where they're running. Seven districts would be open on the map in HB 4. But attempts to run in a different district would be complicated in some cases like that Veasey would find as the current representative in Congressional District 33. Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas is listed as the incumbent in CD 33 on the proposed map.
more to come ...
| 
