New congressional map moves Gonzales County from District 27 to District 15

Texas lawmakers have redrawn the state’s congressional districts in an unusual mid-decade redistricting effort, which started earlier this summer when President Donald Trump began pushing state lawmakers to redraw Texas’ map to shore up the narrow GOP majority in the U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The new districts, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday, Aug. 29, were designed to give the GOP five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms.

Groups representing Black and Latino voters have filed lawsuits to stop the new maps from going into effect claiming that they discriminate against voters of color.

Barring any court rulings blocking the maps for 2026, many voters may be voting in congressional districts with different political leanings or demographic majorities in the upcoming midterms. The first challenge to the new maps will occur in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, which has scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing on the enacted congressional districts to begin on Wednesday, Oct. 1. This is the same three-judge panel which is already considering challenges to Texas’ 2021 maps. The filing deadline for the 2026 midterms is in December.

Despite initial resistance from Abbott and Texas’ congressional delegation, the governor did eventually add it to the agenda for the first special session. After Republicans revealed a map designed to create five new GOP districts, setting up a 30-8 split in Texas’ congressional delegation, Democrats in the state House left for Illinois and other states to deny the chamber the headcount needed to pass legislation.

After California Gov. Gavin Newsom kicked off his state’s retaliatory redistricting effort, the Democratic lawmakers returned, and the new map passed both chambers on party-line votes.

If the 2024 election had taken place under the proposed maps, President Donald Trump would have carried three more districts than he would have under the current congressional map. In addition, Republicans would have better odds in two districts currently held by Democrats that Trump already carried in 2024.

Trump won Texas in 2024 with 56% of the vote. But the current Congressional maps drawn in 2021 saw voters preferring him in 71% — or 27 — of the 38 Texas congressional districts. Under the current proposed map, Trump would have carried 79% of districts, meaning the new boundaries are drawn in a way that favors Republicans far beyond their share of statewide voter support last year.

Republicans control both chambers of the Texas Legislature, which draws congressional districts. GOP lawmakers in 2021 gave their party an advantage in Congress when they drew the district boundaries. Giving one political party an advantage over the other, or gerrymandering, is something both parties do in states across the country.

Parties can carve up districts for political gain, but they cannot redraw the districts to dilute the voting strength of voters of color. Because Black and Hispanic voters in major Texas cities favor Democrats, it can be hard to determine whether lines are drawn for partisan gains versus racial dilution.

In Texas, Hispanics make up the largest demographic group and have driven population growth in the state for at least the last 20 years. But Hispanics are the majority in only seven out of 38 proposed districts.

Still, there would be one additional district where Hispanic Texans make up the majority. There would be an additional two districts where white Texans are the majority, and an additional two districts with a majority of Black Texans.

Gonzales County will move from U.S. House District 27, where it is currently represented by Congressman Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, into a newly drawn House District 15, which will extend from Gonzales County, Lavaca County and DeWitt County southward into Goliad County, Bee County, Refugio County, San Patricio County, part of Aransas County, Jim Wells County, Brooks County and most of Hidalgo County.

In 2024, House District 27 voted 64.3 percent for Trump and 34.7 percent for Kamala Harris and Trump won by 29.6 percentage points. No race or ethnicity in the district had more than 50 percent of the population, but Hispanic voters made up 49 percent, followed by White voters at 44 percent, Black voters at 5 percent and other voters (including Asian) at 2 percent.

The new House District 15 would have voted 58.5 percent for Trump and 40.6 percent for Harris with Trump winning by 17.9 percentage points. It would create a vastly Hispanic majority with 75 percent of the voters coming from that group. White voters would make up 22 percent, followed by Black voters at 2 percent and others (including Asian) at less than 1 percent.