redistricting

Elected leaders at the county, city and school board level have largely avoided the scrutiny targeted at Republicans in the state legislature earlier this year when they drew state and federal lines to overwhelmingly favor white Texans. But the stakes are high in the fight over local district boundaries as well.

For decades college towns like Lawrence, Manhattan and Emporia lost the political power of their students when it came to state legislative districts. This year things are different.

Most elections, experts warn, could be over during primaries — which means fewer voters will be choosing candidates.

Both parties gerrymander, but the left’s push for nonpartisan commissions to draw maps could cost them, says an Atlantic reporter.

Before they’re even signed into law, the state’s new maps for congressional and statehouse districts have been challenged in federal court by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

A legal battle in the U.S. Supreme Court ended the Texas redistricting scheme of massive mulit-member districts to dilute voting strength of Black and Latino communities.

Members considered more than 50 amendments to the proposed map during debate that began Tuesday and ended early Wednesday.

The state gained two additional seats in Congress because of its population growth. People of color drove that growth, with Hispanics making up nearly 2 million of the state’s 4 million additional residents.

While Texas's booming metros will have more people representing them, that’s not the case in more rural parts of the state.

The proposed congressional map also increases the number of districts where Trump had a majority of voters over Biden in 2020 and protects Republican incumbents who might have been vulnerable by packing their districts with more Trump voters.