UPDATE: Texas’ right-wing attorney general, Ken Paxton, has announced that he will be appealing the federal panel’s ruling against Texas’ racially-gerrymandered congressional district maps to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a press release issued this afternoon (Tuesday, Nov. 18) by his office, Paxton claims: “The radical left is once again trying to undermine the will of the people. The Big Beautiful Map was entirely legal and passed for partisan purposes to better represent the political affiliations of Texas. For years, Democrats have engaged in partisan redistricting intended to eliminate Republican representation. Democratic states across the country, from California to Illinois to New York, have systematically reduced representation of Republican voters in their congressional delegations. But when Republicans respond in kind, Democrats rely on false accusations of racism to secure a partisan advantage. I will be appealing this decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, and I fully expect the court to uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.”
ORIGINAL POST: A federal panel today (Tuesday, Nov.18) issued a preliminary injunction against redrawn congressional districts in Texas that would have flipped five districts to majority Republican, making it difficult for five Democratic incumbents to win reelection.
In the Dallas area, new boundary lines would have drawn Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Rep. Marc Veasey out of their districts and would have added new rural areas in East Texas, as far away as 100 miles east of Dallas, to Rep. Julie Johnson’s district.
An appeal of the ruling will go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The map was redrawn at the demand of President Donald Trump who wanted the map changed to add five Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. Redistricting is normally done after a U.S. Census count every 10 years. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, but not illegal.
The three-judge panel was made up of judges appointed by Presidents Obama, Reagan and Trump. Should their ruling be upheld by the Supreme Court, districts will remain as they were in the last election and will be redrawn after the 2030 census in time for the 2032 election.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”
The main argument against the way the new districts were drawn is that minority representation was targeted. Over the summer, Texas House Democrats left the state in order to break quorum, to keep Republicans from voting on redrawn maps. But when another special session was called, Democrats returned to Austin.
If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court decision, Johnson and Veasey are expected to run for reelection in their districts. Crockett is exploring whether to retain her current seat or run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
— David Taffet