{"id":284064,"date":"2026-05-08T07:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/284064\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:17:08","slug":"texas-doesnt-have-many-real-elections-anymore-the-supreme-court-just","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/284064\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas doesn\u2019t have many real elections anymore. The Supreme Court just"},"content":{"rendered":"

I represent Texas House District 70, covering much of\u00a0Plano and parts of Far North Dallas,\u00a0Richardson\u00a0and Allen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0one of the\u00a0few truly competitive districts left in Texas<\/a>. In 2024, my race was decided by 4.44\u00a0percentage\u00a0points, one of the closest Texas House races in the state. I do not see that as a political burden \u2014 I see it as a governing responsibility.<\/p>\n

In a competitive district, you cannot take voters for granted. You cannot only talk to people\u00a0who already\u00a0agree with you. You\u00a0have to\u00a0show up in schools, chambers of commerce, neighborhood meetings, town halls, community\u00a0events\u00a0and living rooms.\u00a0You\u00a0have to\u00a0listen to people who voted for you and people who did not.\u00a0You\u00a0have to\u00a0explain your votes.\u00a0You\u00a0have to\u00a0earn trust\u00a0over and over again.<\/p>\n

That is how\u00a0representative\u00a0government is supposed to work.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s decision in\u00a0Louisiana v. Callais\u00a0makes that harder. The\u00a0court\u00a0struck down\u00a0Louisiana\u2019s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and held that the\u00a0Voting Rights Act<\/a>\u00a0did not require the state to create an\u00a0additional\u00a0majority-minority district. The ruling does not erase the Voting Rights Act, but it narrows one of the tools communities have used for generations to challenge discriminatory maps and demand fair representation.<\/p>\n

Texans should care because redistricting decides more than the shape of a district.\u00a0It decides whether lawmakers\u00a0have to\u00a0listen to the full community they represent, or whether they can hide inside districts drawn to protect them.<\/p>\n

Texas has already seen what happens when competitive districts disappear. In 2024, only nine of 150 Texas House races were decided by less than 10 points. Most Texans now live in districts where the real political fight is not the general election. It is the primary. And when the primary becomes the only election that matters, the legislative process changes. Lawmakers stop asking, \u201cWhat does my whole district need?\u201d and start asking, \u201cWhat will keep me safe from a primary challenge?\u201d<\/p>\n

We have also seen what a more balanced Legislature can look like. In 2001, Democrats held 77 seats in the Texas House and Republicans held 71. The Senate was\u00a0almost evenly\u00a0split, with 16 Republicans and 15 Democrats. Those chambers were not perfect, but\u00a0the math\u00a0forced members to govern differently. Coalitions mattered. Committees mattered. And it\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0be surprising that the 2001 session produced work that\u00a0actually mattered\u00a0to Texans on public education, teacher retirement,\u00a0school employee health insurance, higher education, telemedicine, long-term care, water infrastructure, banking, state agency oversight, and the state budget. That is a different kind of Capitol than one where most of my colleagues only worry about being punished in\u00a0a primary.<\/p>\n

Texas families cannot afford another session consumed by politicians trying to protect themselves. Working families are being squeezed by rising costs. Public schools need real funding. Texas is facing water challenges that will define our future if we do not act with urgency.<\/p>\n

That is what elections should be about. The work. The people. The problems we were sent to Austin to solve.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Supreme Court has now formally cleared\u00a0Texas\u2019 redrawn congressional map<\/a>\u00a0for the 2026 election cycle, a map pushed by\u00a0President\u00a0Donald Trump, signed by\u00a0Gov. Greg\u00a0Abbott\u00a0and designed to\u00a0benefit\u00a0Republicans by as many as five U.S. House seats. Once politicians believe the courts will give them more room to manipulate representation, the pressure builds to go further. Congressional maps today.\u00a0State\u00a0House, State Senate, and State Board of Education may come tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Texas House Democrats saw this coming. That is why, last summer, I broke\u00a0quorum\u00a0alongside my colleagues. Breaking quorum and going to Chicago to stop\u00a0Abbott\u2019s map was serious, and it was hard. It was an effort to stop maps designed to weaken Black and Latino voters before those maps could take hold.<\/p>\n

Now, after Callais, the path forward is harder. But the responsibility is clearer. The 90th Legislature should not be another fight over how politicians can make their own reelections easier. It should be about the cost of living and doing business in Texas, educational and workforce development funding,\u00a0child care\u00a0for working families, water, health care, and whether our state is prepared for the growth already at our doorstep.<\/p>\n

When voters have real choices, their voices are stronger. Their concerns matter more. Their representative\u00a0has to\u00a0be accountable to the people, not to a map, party leadership, or the loudest political machine.<\/p>\n

Competitive districts are not a threat to\u00a0Texas\u00a0government. They make\u00a0government\u00a0better. They produce more responsive offices, stronger debate, and policies rooted in real community needs. They remind every elected official of something too many politicians forget: the seat does not belong to us. It belongs to the people.<\/p>\n

Mihaela Plesa\u00a0represents\u00a0the 70th\u00a0district in the Texas House of Representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I represent Texas House District 70, covering much of\u00a0Plano and parts of Far North Dallas,\u00a0Richardson\u00a0and Allen. It\u2019s\u00a0one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-284064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}