Members of the public received their first chance to weigh in on whether Texas should redraw its congressional boundaries on Thursday.
If the legislature decides to move ahead, it could provide the GOP with five additional seats in Congress ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting held its first of three scheduled public input sessions on Thursday in Austin.
Governor Greg Abbott placed redistricting on the 30-day special session agenda that started July 21. Abbott said the item was included after receiving a letter from the U.S Department of Justice that indicated Texas’s last redistricting in 2021 illegally created a map with large coalitions of non-white voters.
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that if Texas redraws its map, it would allow Republicans to gain five additional seats. The GOP currently holds 25 of 38 congressional seats in Texas.
On Thursday, Democrat members of the select committee questioned the need for the hearings, considering the public cannot weigh in on any proposed change to the map, because no legislation has been filed yet.
“I only know what I know and you only know what you know,” Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, told committee chair Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton. “Between the two of us, I don’t think we know anything of why we’re here.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, whose 35th congressional district covers parts of Austin, San Antonio and Hays County, urged the legislature to focus on passing legislation related to flood relief, “not on radical and ridiculous redistricting.”
The next hearing is set for Houston on Saturday, before the third public hearing arrives at UT-Arlington on Monday, July 28, at 5 p.m.
During the Thursday hearing, Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) asked Vasut what his plan for the committee is beyond the three hearings.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do,” Vasut said. “I would say that we’re going to hear from the public and then once we get through that hearing in Dallas (Arlington) on Monday, then we’ll evaluate what next steps we’ll take.”
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