{"id":60630,"date":"2025-11-22T10:41:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T10:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/60630\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T10:41:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T10:41:25","slug":"rep-tepper-defends-new-congressional-map-as-supreme-court-considers-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/60630\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Tepper defends new congressional map as Supreme Court considers ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court\u2019s ruling<\/a> against Texas\u2019 new congressional map, while it considers whether the maps can be used in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

The high court put the block on hold for the next few days, as Texas asks for a final ruling by December 1. With the candidates filing deadline just weeks away on December 8, the state claims the lower court\u2019s decision throws the congressional elections into \u201cdisarray.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Carl Tepper, who represents Lubbock, said the timing creates uncertainty for legislators who planned to run for newly-drawn congressional seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to know that quite a few members of the legislature, my colleagues, have deferred running for reelection as members of the legislature and are now running for their seats at the newly-drawn congressional seats,\u201d Tepper said. \u201cSo, it\u2019ll be interesting if the old maps stand, and the appeals fail, then these guys are out of their political careers, at least for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

A three-judge panel out of El Paso voted 2-1 that the old maps should stand, claiming \u201csubstantial evidence shows Texas racially gerrymandered\u201d the new one.<\/p>\n

Tepper, who served on the committee that passed the new map, disputed that claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the racial makeups are. I never looked at it. I just knew that, you know, as a partisan officeholder, and we all are, that I want the more Republican-drawn seats,\u201d Tepper said.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s filing<\/a> claims the man hired to draw the map \u201cnever considered racial data\u201d and \u201cdid not have it visible on his computer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s distasteful for us to look at race as a deciding factor in anything. It\u2019s just anti, it\u2019s just anti our belief system. We are just looking for the opportunity for lower taxes, lower regulation, those things that have made the Texas miracle,\u201d Tepper said.<\/p>\n

Tepper argued that polls show 50 to 55 percent of Hispanics in Texas voted for Trump and there\u2019s been an increase in Black voter support for the president. He said the reason to redraw was purely partisan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a very, very thin margin, a majority for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives right now. We\u2019d like to expand that majority,\u201d Tepper said.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re looking at possibly more favorable dynamics in the U.S. Supreme Court. And I think they\u2019re going to decide our way,\u201d Tepper said.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s temporary block came only about an hour after the state called on it to intervene. That order will remain in place for at least the next few days while it considers the case.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court\u2019s ruling against Texas\u2019 new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[32399,32395,32401,7990,3100,2671,32392,2441,32398,5133,138,288,32397,30716,32393,2359,32402,168,170,169,32408,10877,31459,32396,32406,32407,13161,32404,32405,4836,8234,30925,32403,8510,32394,32400,27,13655],"class_list":["post-60630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-approaches","tag-as","tag-blocks","tag-brittany-crittenden","tag-carl-tepper","tag-congress","tag-congressional","tag-court","tag-deadline","tag-democrat","tag-el-paso","tag-elections","tag-filing","tag-gerrymander","tag-heads","tag-high","tag-lower","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-madeleine-hall","tag-map","tag-maps","tag-midterm","tag-motivated","tag-panel","tag-race","tag-racial","tag-racially","tag-representative","tag-republican","tag-ruling","tag-seat","tag-state","tag-supreme","tag-temporarily","tag-texas","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60630","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=60630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}