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U.S. Rep. Greg Casar attends a protest against the bloodshed in Gaza at the University of Texas at Austin last year. Credit: Wikimedia Commons \/ ScreamOfTheNight<\/p>\nU.S. Rep. Greg Casar attends a protest against the bloodshed in Gaza at the University of Texas at Austin last year. Credit: Wikimedia Commons \/ ScreamOfTheNight<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s court decision<\/a> throwing out Texas\u2019 redrawn congressional maps will restore San Antonio\u2019s four congressional seats while causing plans to shift for U.S. House members and candidates on both sides of the aisle. <\/p>\n A panel of three federal judges in El Paso preliminarily enjoined the mid-decade Congressional map that Texas Republicans forced through this summer. In the 2-to-1 decision, Trump-appointed Judge Jeffrey Brown issued a rebuke to the redistricting and the Department of Justice letter that precipitated it, writing \u201csubstantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.\u201d<\/p>\n If upheld, the court ruling will restore several Democratic seats that were drastically redrawn by the mid-decade map, including that of San Antonio-Austin U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, whose district had been replaced with a Republican stronghold. The redistricting also created a domino effect, forcing Casar \u2014 who chairs the House Progressive Caucus \u2014 to plan to run for a blue district that covers Austin but not San Antonio.<\/p>\n Republican Carlos De la Cruz quickly announced his run for Casar\u2019s newly red District 35, which still included San Antonio. De la Cruz joined the mad dash of other GOP candidates seizing on potential pickup opportunities throughout the state. <\/p>\n Indeed, many had already begun fundraising for their campaigns when Tuesday\u2019s decision came down, calling those plans into question. However, as of press time, De la Cruz has made no mention on his social media whether he plans to stop campaigning.<\/p>\n Not retiring after all<\/p>\n Casar\u2019s displacement under the Republican redistricting scheme also prompted 79-year-old U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat, to announce his retirement, essentially a stepping aside to enable the younger upstart to take his reliably blue district.<\/p>\n With the redistricted map thrown out, Doggett has reversed course on retirement. In a Tuesday announcement video<\/a>, the longtime congressman said he\u2019s now seeking reelection.<\/p>\n \u201cFor all those Republicans, who have tried for so many years in so many ways to assure my defeat by gerrymander, not yet, not so quick,\u201d Doggett said in Facebook post accompanying the clip. \u201cI am now actively seeking reelection for TX-37 to represent ATX, the only place I\u2019ve called home. Never give up, never give in! Onward to victory!\u201d<\/p>\n Should Tuesday\u2019s decision stand, Casar tweeted that he plans to run for reelection to continue representing both San Antonio and Austin.<\/p>\n The Trump Abbott maps are clearly illegal, and I\u2019m glad these judges have blocked them.<\/p>\n If this decision stands, I look forward to running for reelection in my current district. <\/p>\n No matter what, we must fight to pass a federal ban on gerrymandering once and for all. https:\/\/t.co\/jtpylw6hmT<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Greg Casar (@GregCasar) November 18, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Other Democrats whose seats have been restored include Dallas U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Houston U.S. Rep. Al Green, both outspoken Trump critics and progressive voices in the House.<\/p>\n The court ruling\u2019s domino effect also calls into question Crockett\u2019s potential plan to launch a U.S. Senate bid. The Democratic up-and-comer has publicly said she\u2019s weighing a pivot to running for the upper chamber.<\/p>\n \u201c[E]very other day there\u2019s a poll that comes out that makes it clear that I can win the primary for the U.S. Senate race in Texas, and I am looking, because if you want to take my seat of 766,000 away, I feel like there has to be some karma in that to where I take your seat \u2014\u00a0that is for 30 million \u2014 away,\u201d Crockett said on SiriusXM\u2019s The Lurie Daniel Favors Show.<\/p>\n Crockett has said she\u2019s giving herself until Thanksgiving to decide whether she\u2019ll run against Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. <\/p>\n In a statement following Tuesday\u2019s court decision, Crockett made no mention of how the restoration of the state\u2019s political maps might change her plans. However, she called on Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore and fortify protections in the Voting Rights Act to guard against what she called an \u201cinsidious move\u201d to disenfranchise communities of color.<\/p>\n \u2018A good day for democracy in Texas\u2019<\/p>\n The reversal of Texas\u2019 redistricting also means Republicans have lost a potential five-seat gain in the U.S. House as they guard their razor-thin majority against what many predict will be crushing midterm losses. <\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s order also means Black and Brown communities have regained power taken from them by the 2025 map, which the court determined was drawn along racial lines. <\/p>\n \u201cToday is a good day for democracy in Texas!\u201d San Antonio Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro said in a statement. \u201cThe courts blocked Governor Abbott and Trump\u2019s illegal power grab. Their racist re-districting attempt would undermine the voting power of Latino and Black communities. They failed. This is the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Marc Veasey, a Fort Worth Democrat, told the Texas Tribune that he was expecting this outcome, given how racially gerrymandered the newly drawn up map was.<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought that their plans to redraw this map were so over the top, so racist, so discriminatory, that I\u2019m really not surprised,\u201d Veasey said.<\/p>\n Like clockwork, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton \u2014\u00a0an indefatigable Trump ally \u2014 has already signaled he\u2019ll appeal the decision by requesting a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. <\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Paxton said in a statement. <\/p>\n \u201cFor years, Democrats have engaged in partisan redistricting intended to eliminate Republican representation,\u201d he continued. \u201cDemocratic 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\u2019s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Supreme Court has until Dec. 8 \u2014\u00a0Texas\u2019 filing deadline for the midterm elections \u2014\u00a0to rule. If the justices fail to act by then, the elections will move ahead employing the existing 2021 map.<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia\u2019s Prop 50 shifts 10 seats in favor of Democrats, wiping out the advantage Republicans got from redistricting the Lone Star State.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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