Texas appealing El Paso court ruling against new congressional maps

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Texas is appealing a federal district court ruling in a lawsuit filed over its new redistricting law.

On Tuesday, a panel of three judges on an El Paso district court ruled 2-1 against the new congressional maps and ordered Texas to use a 2021 redistricting map for the 2026 midterm election.

Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote the opinion for the court noting that the same groups that sued over the 2025 electoral map also sued over the 2021 electoral map, also claiming it was discriminatory.

Despite this, Brown said, “there are several reasons why revering to that map is the most legally sound reasonable solution. First, this remedy is the one the Plaintiff Groups request. Second, the 2021 Map was drawn by the Legislature, and courts favor legislative-drawn maps over judicial ones. Third, the State has already used the 2021 Map in two previous congressional elections and is still using it in one special election that is ongoing.”

Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican members of the legislature, who hold the majority, argue both maps are legal and the legislature followed the law when drawing them. The 2025 map better reflects the will of the voters who have overwhelmingly increased voting Republican in the last two elections, including Hispanic-majority districts, they argue.

“The Legislature redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans’ conservative voting preferences – and for no other reason,” Abbott said. “Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during ten days of hearings.”

He said the court’s ruling “is clearly erroneous and undermines the authority the U.S. Constitution assigns to the Texas Legislature by imposing a different map by judicial edict. The State of Texas will swiftly appeal to the United States Supreme Court.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton also said his office was appealing to the Supreme Court requesting it to stay the lower court’s ruling. He also said the 2025 map is “entirely legal.”

The ruling is the latest effort made by Democrats to block the law from going into effect. Earlier this year, House Democrats left the state to prevent the House from reaching quorum so the House couldn’t conduct legislative business and pass the redistricting bill, or any other bills. Texas House Democrats fled to California, Illinois, New York and other states with the stated purpose to obstruct state legislative business, prompting Abbott to sue Democratic leaders and call special sessions.

After enough Democrats returned to enable the Texas House to meet quorum, the legislature passed the bill, which Abbott signed into law. Not soon after, six groups sued, led by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), arguing the new map was discriminatory.

The legislature redrew 37 of Texas’ 38 congressional districts after Texas reported record population increases and Republicans made record gains with Hispanic and Black voters in the last two elections, The Center Square reported. The new maps potentially could flip up to five seats held by Democrats to Republican.

One of the bill’s authors, state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, argued earlier this year that the maps aren’t racist but were drawn along voting patterns and political preferences.

“In contrast to the complications that are involved with race-based redistricting, political performance is really a pretty easy map to draw and it’s absolutely permissible as a basis for drawing electoral districts,” he said. Based on 2024 voting trends, voters in newly drawn districts could elect at least five more Republicans to Texas’ congressional delegation. Currently, it consists of 25 Republicans and 13 Democrats.

“That doesn’t mean [voters] will do that in 2026,” King said. “There are no guarantees. There are competitive districts in here now, more competitive than the current map, and I have no idea who’s going to run for what office.”

LULAC’s president Roman Palomares praised the ruling, referring to it as a “victory for the people of Texas and for every voter who has the right to determine who will govern them and who will shape the laws and policies of this state.”