Texas senators advance redistricting plan in Sunday hearing

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Sunday evening, a Texas Senate committee advanced a bill to redraw congressional voting districts in the state. The vote came after a public hearing scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The hearing comes two days after Governor Greg Abbott called a second special session of the Texas Legislature.

Congressional redistricting is one of the 19 items on Abbott’s special session agenda.

A public hearing is required before a bill can advance for a vote on the Senate floor. Senators approved an identical bill on August 12 in the first special session.

The previous effort to pass the redistricting legislation failed after more than 50 Texas House Democrats left the state to break quorum.  Democratic lawmakers say the new map is an attack on the representation of minority voters in the districts being redrawn.

“We did exactly what we said we needed to do, and that is bringing a spotlight on this issue,” State Rep. Josey Garcia, D-San Antonio said in an interview one day before Gov. Abbott called the second special session.

House leaders expect that the House will have enough members present Monday to conduct legislative business.

State Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, is the author of Senate Bill 4, which he said is identical to legislation filed in the first special session. The redistricting plan would give Republicans a partisan advantage in five congressional districts currently held by Democrats. President Donald Trump previously called for Texas leaders to redraw maps to gain Republican seats in the 2026 elections.

“Just a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats,” the president told reporters last month.

At the start of today’s hearing, Sen. King said the bill met three objectives he had for a map.

“The first one, and most important, is that it be legal, and this map is is legal with regard to all applicable law. The second is that it would perform better for Republicans, and this map does perform better, by my judgment, for Republicans,” King said.

He added that the maps achieved a third objective that he had not had when the maps were first proposed. “We heard a lot of testimony that the current map had a number of districts that were not compact, were not close together, were not tight, in in their in their design, and in this map, listening to that testimony, we applied it, and this map also is much more compact than the current congressional redistricting map.”

Toward the end of the hearing, State Sen. Borris Miles, D – Houston, asked Sen. King how many people had testified on the bill. According to the committee clerk, 43 people testified in the public hearing.

“Senator King, do you know how many were in favor of this bill today who testified?” Miles asked.

“I think one,” King replied.

The proposed changes target five districts in areas around Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, creating Republican-leaning seats.  Bill authors have pointed out that the maps also establish new majority-minority districts. Under the plan, four of the five redrawn districts would have Hispanic citizen voting-age population majorities.

Sen. King maintained that he did not know if the maps would affect minority representation in the Texas congressional delegation. He said that was not the intent of the maps.

“I filed the map, but the my intent was to help elect more Republicans to the Congress, to the US Congress, because I believe that the policies that they will promote will be in the best interest of the state of Texas. And I believe that with all my heart,” King said before the vote to advance SB 4.

“I have no idea whether it will elect Hispanics or African Americans or whites or Asians, I but I do believe that that there will be five districts that will be more leaning Republican than we currently have today,” King added.