Read about all of the candidates running to represent Bexar County in Congress here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, incumbent U.S. Rep. Chip Roy<\/a> (R-Dripping Springs) is running for Attorney General<\/a> instead of reelection in the 21st Congressional District<\/a>, and the 35th Congressional District<\/a> changed so dramatically that incumbent U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Austin) is now running<\/a> for a different seat.<\/p>\n If scandal-plagued U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales<\/a> (R-San Antonio) doesn\u2019t make it through his primary, voters in a third San Antonio-area district will be sending a newcomer to Congress.<\/p>\n Across the country, Republican-led legislatures have been cracking up blue urban centers to create more GOP-friendly congressional seats.<\/p>\n The result is a national congressional map<\/a> with fewer flippable seats than there were before the 2020 Census \u2014 even as Democrats head into an election they think offers their best political environment since 2018, following President Donald Trump\u2019s election the first time.<\/p>\n That\u2019s left both parties fighting over districts they once wouldn\u2019t have considered competitive.<\/p>\n At the same time, Texas\u2019 new district lines weren\u2019t solidified until halfway through the filing period, and many races now feature crowded fields of candidates with either little political experience to help their community, or little connection to the district they\u2019re running in.<\/p>\n \u201cNone of these candidates are very well-known by the primary electorate,\u201d said Phil\u00a0Gardner, a senior adviser at Blue Dog Action PAC, which is running TV ads for Democrat Johnny Garcia in TX35. \u201cThat can lead to all sorts of almost random outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n Interactive: Before and after<\/p>\n Pull right and left on the tab below to see how San Antonio\u2019s congressional delegation looks before and after redistricting. Read on to learn more about who voters are choosing between.<\/p>\n A single blue district<\/p>\n San Antonio is currently represented by three Democrats, U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro<\/a> (D-San Antonio), Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) and Greg Casar (D-Austin), and two Republicans, U.S. Reps. Chip Roy<\/a> (R-Dripping Springs) and Tony Gonzales<\/a> (R-San Antonio).<\/p>\n To create more GOP-friendly seats, Republicans took blue strongholds like Bexar County and put as many Democratic voters as possible into a single district, while dividing up the rest into districts where their votes would be outweighed by surrounding redder territory.<\/p>\n \u201cOftentimes, when red states are fully in charge of redistricting and they\u2019re trying to maximize potential partisan gains, a tactic is to basically crack the bluest areas into districts that are red enough \u2026 or pack the Democratic voters all into one district, which is essentially what they did in San Antonio,\u201d said Erin Covey, who oversees U.S. House race coverage for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.<\/p>\n After redistricting, Cuellar\u2019s South Texas district now stops short of Bexar County \u2014 something Republicans did to help their party flip that seat this cycle.<\/p>\n Another blue seat, Casar\u2019s Austin-to-San Antonio district<\/a>, was replaced by a new Republican pickup opportunity on San Antonio\u2019s Southeast side.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that [the old 35th Congressional District] is gone, you have just one blue district in Austin and one blue district in San Antonio,\u201d Covey said. \u201cSo collectively, these two cities will potentially have the lowest number of Democratic representation in Congress that they\u2019ve had in [20 years].\u201d<\/p>\n San Antonio\u2019s lone Democrat-held seat, Castro\u2019s\u00a020th Congressional District<\/a>, is now bluer than ever.<\/p>\n Redistricting took it from a primarily West Side<\/a> district to one that encompasses nearly all of downtown San Antonio. It supported Democrat Kamala Harris with 60% of its vote in 2024, but under its new boundaries<\/a>, would have given her 63.5% of the vote.<\/p>\n Castro\u2019s home was drawn out of the district<\/a>, but members of Congress aren\u2019t required to live in the district they represent and he faces little opposition seeking his party\u2019s nomination for an eighth term.<\/p>\n One Republican, retired physician\u00a0Edgardo Baez<\/a>, is running for the 20th Congressional District in 2026, and hopes to capitalize on the large number of voters who shifted in during redistricting.<\/p>\n More San Antonio-centric seats<\/p>\n When the new maps were unveiled, Gonzales told the Report that San Antonio could ultimately benefit from districts that now focus more on a single major metro area, instead of looping in the bluest parts of two or more large population centers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we have five members, really only Joaquin [Castro] and I are the only two that live and are raising our family in San Antonio,\u201d he said in a Sept. 10 interview. \u201d \u2026 In my eyes, we really could double our delegation\u2019s size \u2026 [in terms of] actual people that have invested skin in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Six months later, this outlook appears unlikely.<\/p>\n Reshaped districts drew crowded fields of little-known candidates that have raised little money to reach voters, and seem likely to head to bruising runoffs. <\/p>\n Now both parties have become so frantic about the razor-thin U.S. House majority<\/a> that they\u2019re pouring money behind any candidate<\/a> they think will give them an edge in November \u2014 regardless of whether they\u2019re deeply rooted in the district.<\/p>\n In Roy\u2019s Hill Country-area district, redistricting removed an arm up to Austin and replaced it with a deeper reach into Bexar County. It remains quite red, and finding the right Republican<\/a> to satisfy both the party\u2019s rural and urban parts once seemed like a high priority. <\/p>\n But the leading contender among 12 GOP candidates running for the seat is now former MLB player Mark Teixeira<\/a>, who lives north of the district in Bee Cave, and has put more than $2.5 million of his own money into the race. He has Trump\u2019s endorsement, and one Bexar County candidate even dropped out to endorse him<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the district\u2019s expansion into Bexar County has left many Democrats confused about why it\u2019s not more of a priority for their party. <\/p>\n Even the reddest parts of Bexar County are still evenly split between the two parties, where Democrats new to the district are still eager to make a play for<\/a> a seat that would have supported Trump with more than 60% of its vote under new boundaries.<\/p>\n Turmoil in a new district<\/p>\n Redistricting turned TX35 from a solidly blue\u00a0Austin-to-San Antonio district<\/a>\u00a0to a\u00a0potential GOP pickup<\/a>\u00a0opportunity, cupping San Antonio\u2019s southeast side and stretching west into Karnes, Guadalupe and Wilson counties. <\/p>\n Though Republicans allegedly drew it for state Rep. John Lujan<\/a> (R-San Antonio), a former San Antonio firefighter who already represented the area in the Texas House, this month President Donald Trump and GOP congressional leaders shocked some political watchers by coming out in favor of a different candidate, Carlos De La Cruz<\/a>, the brother of a South Texas congresswoman.<\/p>\n De La Cruz opened a boxing gym in San Antonio in 2018, and has not responded to questions about his current employment or residence.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/san-antonio-congressional-delegation.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/new-districts-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/texas-20th-congressional-district.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/texas-21st-congressional-district.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/tx-35th-congressional-district.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n