Texas House Map Sparks Shuffle
with Troxclair Taking Wilson Cue

Capitol Inside
October 1, 2021

GOP State Rep. Terry Wilson of Granite Shoals is making the conversion to full-fledged suburban after announcing on Friday that he's moving to Williamson County so he can run for re-election in the district that he's represented for three terms in the Texas House.

Wilson's relocation plans prompted Austin Republican Ellen Troxclair to shift her sights from a state Senate race in 2022 to a bid for a newly-created House District 19 seat in a swath of the Hill Country where she could be pit against GOP State Rep. Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg.

Wilson's home base of Burnet County would be severed from House District 20 on a map that GOP leaders proposed on Thursday. But two-thirds of Wilson's current constituents live in Williamson County on the northern edge of the Austin area - so he had less to lose by leaving 49,000 Burnet County residents behind than

Troxclair's plans for a Senate District 24 race hit an unexpected wall when the seat was redesigned former GOP senator Pete Flores of Pleasanton at Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's direction. But Troxclair continued to campaign in the preliminary version of SD 24 for a week until the opportunity in HD 19 opened up with a small slice of western Travis County where she's a resident.

A former Austin city council member, Troxclair may not know at the moment whether she would be a challenger or a candidate for an open seat in HD 19. The proposed district includes Gillespie County where Biedermann is based. Biedermann and Wilson had been paired initially in the redistricting plan that GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's team devised.

Biedermann, however, appeared to be weighing the possibility of a move to Comal County so he could seek the House District 73 seat after having Gillespie shuffled into HD 19. The heavily-Republican HD 73 seat would take in a slice of Hays County where Democratic State Rep. Erin Zwiener of Driftwood is a resident. Zwiener could move a few miles from her current residence to try to reclaim her House District 45 seat that would be contained solely within Hays County where she could have better odds than she would have with the current seat.

Wilson's bolt back to HD 20 may have averted the last potential pairing in the GOP primary election on the House battlefield in 2022. GOP State Reps. Jacey Jetton of Sugar Land and Phil Stephenson of Wharton were lumped together in House District 26 on paper. Stephenson doesn't have far to go to get back in House District 85 - however - after picking up a sliver of Fort Bend County where Jetton is based.

Collin and Denton counties would both have one new seat that are drawn for the GOP on the map in HB 1. Democrats would expect to pick up a new seat that would be located in Fort Bend County.

Wilson's decision to return to HD 20 comes with some degree of risk with chunks of the Austin suburbs of Cedar Park and Leander that he doesn't represent now. But the Wilson move could have been preordained as a key member of the Phelan team as the chairman of the Appropriations subcomittee that oversees education spending.

more to come ...