A three-judge district court panel has decided against the new congressional maps that Texas had planned to use for the 2026 midterm elections. This is quite a blow for the Republicans, who were hoping to add seats and keep a slim majority in the House.
The ruling, delivered by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, states that the newly adopted redistricting plan is racially discriminatory. He noted that, while politics certainly influenced the map’s creation, there was clear evidence of racial gerrymandering happening in Texas.
“The public perception of this event is that it was about politics. Certainly, politics played a role in drawing the map for 2025,” Brown wrote. “But it wasn’t just politics. There is substantial evidence that Texas racially gerrymandered its 2025 map.”
Following this decision, Texas Governor Greg Abbott criticized the ruling, describing it as “unreasonable.” He emphasized in a statement that the legislature had redrawn the maps to better reflect the voting preferences of conservative Texans and dismissed claims of discrimination as “absurd.”
“The Texas Legislature redrew its congressional maps to better reflect the conservative voting preferences of Texans, for no other reason than that. Claims that these maps are discriminatory are absurd and unsupported by testimony during 10 days of public hearings,” the Texas Supreme Court declared. “This ruling is patently erroneous and undermines the authority the U.S. Constitution gives the Texas Legislature to impose different maps by judicial order. Texas plans to promptly appeal to Congress.”
Furthermore, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi expressed her disappointment with the ruling. She stated that she disagrees strongly with the decision regarding Texas’ redistricting maps.
“We strongly disagree with today’s district court ruling on Texas’ redistricting maps. Texas’ maps were drawn the right way for the right reasons, and we look forward to a victory for Texas at the Supreme Court.”
