Fresh off Texas Senate’s approval, new congressional map is target of lawsuits

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Hours after the Texas Senate approved a new congressional map early Saturday morning that more heavily favors Republicans — legislation Gov. Greg Abbott plans to “swiftly” sign into law — a lawsuit against the governor was filed, alleging that the redrawn districts are racially discriminatory.

The 67-page complaint against Abbott and Secretary of State Jane Nelson supplements legal action filed by LULAC in 2021 challenging the state’s original maps and argues that redrawing districts mid-decade is unconstitutional.

Redistricting usually happens at the start of the decade after U.S. census data comes out. The complaint argues that because the new map was drawn based on the same data used for the initial map passed by the Legislature in 2021, the measure was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

“Even if racial and partisan considerations are an unavoidable part of redistricting, there is no need for legislatures to take those considerations into account a second time in a single decade,” the complaint reads.

The complaint, which is expected to be followed by others targeting House Bill 4, was filed by two law firms on behalf of 13 Texas residents collectively called “the Gonzales plaintiffs.” The bulk of their argument is that the new congressional map “dismantles majority-minority districts” by prioritizing Republican representation in Congress.

The NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Mexican American Legislative Caucus joined LULAC in two additional supplemental suits against Abbott on Monday and Tuesday, also calling the maps unconstitutional and "intentionally discriminatory."

Abbott’s office defended the maps, stating that it allows “more Texans to vote for the candidate of their choice,” Andrew Mahaleris, the governor’s press secretary, said Monday in a prepared statement.

“Voters, especially Hispanic Texans, are increasingly moving away from Democrats and deserve to vote for candidates who better align with their values,” Mahaleris added, later calling claims that the maps discriminatory “absurd.”

On the Senate floor Friday, Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford who carried HB 4 in the upper chamber, said the plan “meets the critically important goals of legality, of political performance for Republicans and of improved compactness,” and that he did not consider racial population data while crafting it.

Republicans pushed for the new map with their eyes set on gaining five more seats in Congress after pressure from President Donald Trump, who wants to preserve the GOP’s slim U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterms. But the complaint says that effort came at the cost of Latino and Black communities, which have largely supported Democratic candidates.

The new lines squeeze more Democratic voters in Houston and Dallas into districts the minority party already controls — a strategy known as “packing.” The Republican-backed map also “cracks” left-leaning communities by splitting voters who supported Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024 into Republican districts, according to an analysis by The Texas Tribune.

The complaint was filed by two law firms, The Law Office of Max Renea Hicks and the Elias Law Group, the firm of prominent Democratic attorney Marc Elias. They also allege that the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act for not creating enough Latino-majority districts to match the growth of Texas’ Latino population.

For example, the complaint points to Harris County, where the new map carves out only one district that’s majority Latino, although the county is nearly half Latino, according to the latest U.S. census.

The census also confirmed that Latinos make up the largest share of Texas’ population, and that Texans of color made up 95% of the state’s population growth in the last decade — but that’s not reflected in the new congressional map, the complaint alleges.

With the new district lines, the lawsuit charges, lawmakers are “intentionally destroying majority-minority districts and replacing them with majority-Anglo districts.”

Democratic lawmakers have waged a lively battle to fend off the GOP’s proposed map since Abbott announced that the first special session in July would include redistricting. House Democrats fled the state halfway through the first session, breaking the lower chamber’s quorum and halting all operations. But the members returned to Austin at the start of the second session.

And on Friday, state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, signaled her intention to filibuster the map well into Saturday. Republicans, however, ended the debate on HB 4, killing her effort. Lawmakers also listened to hours of hearings from Texans across the state who pleaded with them to leave their districts alone.

The complaint and others that are sure to follow are a sign that Democrats and civil rights groups will continue to fight the implementation of the maps ahead of the 2026 election.

The National Redistricting Foundation, which brought LULAC’s initial lawsuit, is also directing this new case.

“Texas’s existing map already dilutes the voting power of communities of color,” Marina Jenkins, the foundation’s executive director, said in a news release.

“In spite of that, the state has doubled down with an even more extreme racial gerrymander that goes even further to pack and crack communities of color and minimize the number of congressional districts where minority voters have the ability to elect candidates of their choice,” she later said. “The court has already agreed to consider expediting this case, and we are confident that justice will be delivered for Texans.”

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