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A Texas state representative examines a congressional redistricting map during debate in the House chamber at the Capitol in Austin on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
File this one under “What a difference a year makes.”<\/p>\n
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Gov. Greg Abbott signed the mid-decade congressional redistricting bill on Aug. 29, 2025, with a celebratory video describing how Republicans in the Legislature, acting at the urging of President Donald Trump, had all but crammed the plan down the throats of Texas Democrats.<\/p>\n
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As Democrats hope to reverse losses among Latino voters in South Texas, Bobby Pulido\u2019s congressional campaign is testing whether moderation and music will stem the bleeding. Read the full story on our website.<\/p>\n
Ex.co<\/p>\n
Those same Democrats tried to kill the bill by breaking quorum in the state House. They generated hours of airtime on cable outlets and spilled barrels of ink \u2014 in both the virtual and real senses \u2014 to denounce the plan designed to put as many as five of the Democrats’ 13 congressional seats out of their party’s reach. And they mounted an expensive, but ultimately futile, legal blitz in a “Hail Mary” effort to derail the map in the courts.<\/p>\n
Now, one year and one day after Abbott affixed his signature to what he called the “One Big Beautiful Map” \u2014 a plan he said would put “more RED in Congress” \u2014 some indicators suggest Republicans may have spiked the football at the 50-yard line a little too soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The back story is now familiar. Hoping to avoid the midterm curse in which the party holding the White House loses seats in Congress, Trump saw that he had wrested the counties along the Rio Grande from the grip of the Democrats and figured that, with some clever cartography, he and the Republicans could end the careers of two South Texas congressional Democrats without endangering the one GOP member from the area.<\/p>\n
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READ MORE: House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigns in South Texas as new poll shows Republicans slipping<\/a><\/p>\n Along the way, they would combine two predominantly Black districts in Houston into one and do the same in Dallas-Fort Worth, thereby eliminating a third and fourth Democrat. Finally, they would combine two safe Democratic districts in Austin, bringing the Republican gains to a net pickup of five seats.<\/p>\n But all of that happened before federal agents in Minnesota shot and killed two American citizens<\/a> protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. And before Trump’s war with Iran sent gasoline prices soaring. And before Trump’s tariffs, initially thought to target hostile nations like China, were extended\u00a0to a friendly neighbor like Canada<\/a> and further aggravated inflation.<\/p>\n So while the new congressional districts looked good to Republicans last\u00a0summer, several of them are now giving the party in power heartburn.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Let’s start with District 28, anchored by Laredo and long represented by Democrat Henry Cuellar. Had the redrawn 28th been in place two years ago, Trump would have won it by 11 percentage points. But Cuellar is a conservative Democrat and well known to his South Texas constituents. He’s had his troubles, not the least of which was being indicted on federal corruption and bribery charges, which he has denied. And Trump pardoned him, sparing him a trial.<\/p>\n