There’s a scramble going on, that’s for sure.
In August, when the Texas Legislature passed a new congressional map intended to yield five additional seats for the GOP, a mass of Republicans stepped forward to run in the newly gerrymandered districts. Meanwhile, several Democratic incumbents were pushed into nearby districts already occupied by another Democrat, forcing them to contemplate primaries or retirement.
Less than three months later, in the wake of a federal injunction striking down the map, it’s gleeful Democrats who are now declaring for office, while Republican candidates have to hope the U.S. Supreme Court takes their side and reverses the order.
“Oohwee, Trump’s about to be so mad,” said a giddy Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, in a video posted to X.
[…]
The court ruling, if upheld, will restore the four seats Democrats currently hold in Harris County, rather than reducing them to three, which would be a significant relief to whoever wins the special election runoff for Texas’ 18th Congressional District.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards are competing in a Jan. 31 runoff to decide who will serve out the final months of Rep. Sylvester Turner’s term, after the Houston Democrat died in office earlier this year. The winner would have faced the unenviable prospect of running against longtime Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, in a primary. Green, whose district was fully dismantled, has already filed to run in the new 18th Congressional District, which overlapped with much of his current seat — the 9th Congressional District — and included his home residence.
In an interview, Green said the federal panel made the right decision, and that he hoped the Supreme Court would as well. He said he planned to run in 2026 wherever his house is — District 9 if the ruling is upheld, District 18 if it is struck down.
“I will run from the place where my home is,” Green said. “I’ve always held that position.”
Texas legislators redrew the 9th Congressional District “so radically” that less than three percent of the district’s previous voters remain, U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the court’s ruling. The new map accomplished two goals, Brown said: eliminating a coalition district, as the Department of Justice had ordered, and adding Hispanic-majority districts, as Abbott had directed, in creating a district that is 50.3% Hispanic.
To do so, the map-drawers took some of the Black residents previously in the 9th Congressional District and moved them into the 18th District, which became 50.5% Black. These “bare majority” districts stood out as a red flag to the court, a sign that lawmakers were overly attuned to race in drawing these new districts.
“Our interpretation — that DOJ commanded Texas to meet a 50% racial target — is consistent with the map the Legislature ultimately passed,” Brown wrote.
The Legislature also redrew the 29th Congressional District, which was flagged as a coalition district in a DOJ letter that formed the initial basis of Texas’ decision to redistrict. But as Brown noted, it wasn’t actually a coalition district, but rather a majority Hispanic district, “as DOJ realizes halfway through the letter.” Still, the Legislature turned it into a coalition district — where Black and Hispanic voters combine to form a majority — by “radically reconfiguring” the district’s boundaries to remove Latino voters.
The restoration of the 2021 map would be a boon to Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston. Under the 2025 map, she faced a primary challenge from former state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, who is Black, in a district where Black voters were likely to outnumber Latino voters in a Democratic primary.
In an interview with Houston Public Media, Garcia said she was “elated” about the ruling and “hopeful” that the Supreme Court would agree with the lower court.
“I think that if there is an appeal, hopefully the Supreme Court won’t take it,” she said. “But if they do, they must act on it fairly quick. Courts, generally speaking, don’t like holding up elections.”
The ruling leaves Republican candidates without a viable path for District 9, which had been redrawn to include conservative Liberty County and moved from a district that voted for Kamala Harris by 44 percentage points to one that would have supported Trump by 20 points.
State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, a top candidate for the redrawn District 9, said in a statement that his campaign was moving “full steam ahead.”
“We are running under the lines lawfully passed by the Big Beautiful map and the courts will not thwart the will of Texas voters and their representatives,” Cain said in a statement. “We are confident this temporary court obstruction will be swiftly overcome.”
Oh, poor little Briscoe. I’m sure he’s having a lot of big feelings right now. Keep using your words, Briscoe, it’s the best way to deal with them.
To briefly sum up the rest of the story, Rep. Marc Veasey will run for re-election in CD33, Rep. Julie Johnson in CD32, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett in CD30. Rep. Lloyd Doggett is back in CD37, with Rep. Greg Casar shifting back to CD35 and a whole bunch of wannabe Republicans left pouting like Briscoe Cain. Read and enjoy.
All this is contingent on SCOTUS not stepping in and putting the ruling on hold for Reasons. I’m trying to balance my schadenfreude with the knowledge that our corrupt judicial overlords have the last say. Everything we’re saying now could come back to bite us in the ass tomorrow. I wish it didn’t have to be this uncertain, but this is where we are. As the man said, hold onto your butts. See this Trib story for details on the legal process from here, and the Chron, the Current, and Politico have more.