Photo: Moment RF
Texas’ newly drawn congressional maps—which were set to give the GOP five new seats in Congress—have been blocked by a three-judge panel in El Paso.
The maps were designed to eliminate majority-minority “coalition districts,” which were recently ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
That ruling followed an effort by Galveston County Republicans to redistrict their county commissioner courts.
The decision is expected to be appealed by Republicans, and many predict the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
In response, Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement: “The Legislature redrew our congressional maps to better reflect Texans' conservative voting preferences – and for no other reason. Any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd and unsupported by the testimony offered during ten days of hearings. This 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 weighed in, announcing that he will file an appeal with the Supreme Court of the United States and ask for a stay of an order of a three-judge district court that has temporarily blocked Texas’s new map for congressional districts from implementation.
“The 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,” said Attorney General Paxton. “For years, Democrats have engaged in partisan redistricting intended to eliminate Republican representation. Democratic 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’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.”
The new map was passed by the Texas Legislature and signed by Governor Abbott in August, despite attempts by House Democrats to block the process by breaking quorum. Attorney General Paxton will continue to defend Texas’s Big Beautiful Map and the legitimate political considerations that warranted Texas’s redistricting efforts.