Fort Worth congressman leading charge against Texas redistricting

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey is not just mad — he’s fighting mad. 

The Fort Worth Democrat’s congressional seat is in the crosshairs. Now, he’s a leader in what is becoming a historic push back by Democrats against the mid-decade congressional redistricting effort underway in Texas.

It’s all about the House majority as the 2026 mid-terms loom. An election halfway into a presidential term typically favors the party out of power.

“This is nothing more than a power grab for Republicans to get additional seats,” Veasey said.

Now the congressman is leading the day-to-day Texas charge against the GOP redistricting as part of an aggressive counter-strategy by Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York.

President Donald Trump, worried about his slim House majority of three seats, leaned on Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to open up redistricting and produce five more Republican-leaning seats. 

On July 15, Trump told reporters about his push to get more GOP seats through redistricting. 

“There could be some other states. We’re going to get another three or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one,” he said. “Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.”

Texas has 38 congressional districts with Republicans holding 25 and Democrats 12. One district is vacant after the death of U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.

Veasey’s 33rd District — created after the 2010 census as a voting rights district to ensure representation for communities of color — is one of at least four that could be significantly redrawn this summer by Texas lawmakers.

In a letter to Abbott, U.S. Justice Department officials identified Veasey’s seat and three other Democratic-held majority-minority districts as unconstitutionally gerrymandered, laying out a justification for the redraw.

“We urge the state of Texas to rectify these race-based considerations from these specific districts,” the letter read.

When asked if he was caving to Trump, Abbott told Fox 4, “People are always going to lodge criticisms. I’m not going to worry about stuff like that. 

“What I’m worried about is making sure we are going to have congressional districts in the state of Texas where Texas is going to be represented in Washington, D.C., in ways that fit the structure of this recent court decision that allows Texas to draw these districts that also maximize the ability of Texans to vote for their candidate of choice.”

But Veasey — who recently introduced a bill restricting mid-decade redistricting — said that the department’s insistence that majority-minority districts are illegal is a “smokescreen,” as Texas officials repeatedly stood by them in previous legal challenges.

Using a baseball metaphor, Veasey said, “This is a change-up — Republicans will do anything to rush over minority rights.”

GOP incumbents have been resolute in saying very little about redistricting. The high-level sudden move to redistrict has been sensitive for both parties, roiling Republicans as well as Democrats, who did not expect to have a new political landscape for reelection.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who represented GOP incumbents during the redesign after the 2020 census, is again the Republican’s congressional point person on the mid-decade redistricting.

Asked for specifics, McCaul demurred. “For a variety of reasons, I can’t comment,” he said. 

Before redistricting was added to Texas’ special legislative session, U.S. Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Waxahachie, said that he was not involved in the process when asked about possible changes. “I like my district,” said Ellzey, whose District 6 includes parts of Tarrant County.

Breaking up a Tarrant County district

Securing the Tarrant County-area seat along with one in Houston and two in South Texas could be easy wins for the GOP, redistricting guru David Wasserman, a senior elections analyst of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, wrote in a study of Texas redistricting released last week.

“Through sheer political force, Texas Republicans have a clear opportunity to flip between three and five Democratic seats to their column of top of the 25 they already hold,” Wasserman wrote.

Texas’ 33rd district now connects portions of Tarrant and Dallas counties with a racial demographic that is 58% Latino, 18% Black, 13% white and 8% Asian. 

Veasey’s district could be split with its bluest precincts going to districts with wide GOP majorities, Wasserman explained. 

The Democrats aren’t going to make it easy for that to happen, Wasserman said, hinting at a media campaign to fight back. 

Their Anti-Rigging Act of 2025, which Veasey and other Texas members brought forward, would prohibit mid-decade redistricting except in the case of a court order. While it is unlikely to go anywhere under a GOP-controlled House, it is part of the pressure campaign to put Republicans on defense.

Veasey, co-chair of the Voting Rights Caucus, called a press conference July 23 outside the U.S. Capitol on Texas redistricting. He was joined by House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts; U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, dean of the Texas delegation; and other members of Congress.

He and other Democratic Texas members — including U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia of Houston, Jasmine Crockett of Dallas and Julie Johnson of Dallas — will be at the July 28 redistricting hearing in Arlington.

“I’m encouraging everyone to use every tool in the box, including a quorum break,” Johnson said.

Johnson served in the Texas Legislature for three terms, including in 2021 when lawmakers fled the state to deny the GOP a quorum for a vote on legislation restricting voting rights.

When asked about his position on redistricting, Texas’ most senior Republican, Rep. John Carter of Round Rock, said he “didn’t care” and that he wasn’t worried about a new configuration.

“They can’t hardly draw me a bad map,” said Carter, who has held his seat since 2003. “My position is very simple: I support the president. If he wants to do redistricting, that’s fine with me. Whatever they give me, I plan to win.”

Maria Recio is a freelance reporter based in Washington, D.C.

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