When state officials first conceived of the current special session of the Texas Legislature, it was thought that flood control might be a hot topic, not to mention the apparent crisis around cannabis products. Instead – reportedly by order of the increasingly beleaguered White House – the Lege has taken upon itself a highly unusual mid-decade congressional redistricting project, with the express purpose of creating five additional Republican seats in the U.S. House.
Republicans already hold almost two-thirds of the seats (25-13). And since the overall voting gap statewide seems to hover around 56-44, GOP mapmakers have had to go to some extreme lengths to get their margin up to 30-8. Targets include two seats in purple DFW, two more in the Rio Grande Valley, and one each in Houston and Austin.
The first proposed map that came out of the House Wednesday morning appears to cut the city of Austin into six districts – with our two existing U.S. Reps thrown into one congressional district, and the rest of the city and metro area dispersed into five spidery districts that stretch from the Texas coast to the desert around Odessa, and into deep East Texas.
Here’s what things look like at this point, with the caveat that this is a first draft, and there will surely be much redrawing before anything gets finalized.
• CD 37 comprises the bulk of Central Austin, and throws current Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar into running against each other, unless one of them moves to one of these other districts.
• CD 11 goes from northern Travis County (and a sliver of Williamson) and stretches out west to its likely anchor in Odessa.
• CD 21 takes in the very conservative Hill Country, up through eastern Hays County, but also stretches down into San Antonio, making it a possible Democratic opportunity. It’s worth noting that Doggett once represented a chunk of San Antonio, and Casar represents some of the city now.
• CD 17 takes most of the liberal part of southern Williamson County, and throws it into a district that’s centered in Waco and stretches up to Hillsboro.
• CD 10 runs from West Austin and western Travis County, all the way to the Big Thicket in East Texas, likely centered in College Station.
• CD 27 runs from southern and eastern Travis County, plus Buda, Kyle, and part of San Marcos, all the way down to Port Aransas and parts of Corpus Christi.
This article appears in August 1 • 2025.