Redistricting in Texas
districts, Texas Senate districts, Texas Board of Education districts, and Texas's congressional districts are redistricted once every decade, usually in the year after the decennial United States census. According to the Texas Constitution, redistricting in Texas follows the regular legislative process; it must be passed by both houses of the Texas Legislature and signed by the governor of Texas—unless the legislature has sufficient votes to override a gubernatorial veto. Like many other states in the American South after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, federal judges and the United States Supreme Court have struck down Texas's congressional and legislative districts on multiple occasions, including in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
The most recent redistricting occurred in October 2021, when Republican governor Greg Abbott signed maps passed by the Republican-controlled legislature for the 2022–2031 decade. Many have criticized the maps that passed as racial and partisan gerrymanders designed to keep Republicans in power and reduce the voting power of minority communities.
Background
Reapportionment of representatives between the states every ten years based on new census figures is required by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Constitution, Supreme Court jurisprudence, and federal law allow significant latitude to the individual states to draw their congressional and legislative districts as they see fit, as long as each district contains roughly equivalent numbers of people and provides for minority representation pursuant to the Voting Rights Act.Article III of the Constitution of Texas mandates that redistricting must occur in the first legislative session following the publication of a new enumeration by the United States census. The House of Representatives must have 150 members and the Senate must have 31 members. Additionally, districts for the state House of Representatives must follow the "county line rule". Counties are allocated districts based on their population. Counties with sufficient population for exactly one district must be fully contained within that district. Counties with sufficient population for two or more districts must be divided into that number of districts. Should a county have sufficient population for one or more district plus a fraction of another, one district from another county may extend into it to represent the remaining population.
Process
The redistricting process begins with each decennial census, when the U.S. government provides detailed census tract data to the states, usually by March 1 of the first year of the decade. The Texas Legislative Council provides this census data to legislators, who then draw district boundaries in a computer program using this information. Legislators then pass these boundaries into law as they would any other bill. Redistricting bills for each state legislative chamber typically originate in their respective chambers. If state legislative boundaries are not enacted by the legislature during the regular session, the Legislative Redistricting Board, consisting of the lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, attorney general, comptroller, and land commissioner, will pass its own plan, not subject to the governor's veto.The legislature may alter the maps it passes later in the decade through mid-decade redistricting. This may occur in response to judicial action against the legislature's previously passed maps or to gain political advantage through gerrymandering, as was the case in 2003 after Republicans took full control of the Texas Legislature.
History
Statehood
Texas's original state legislative districts were enacted by its 1845 Constitution. Immediately after convening for the first time, the Texas Legislature enacted its first set of congressional districts. The state was apportioned two districts until its secession in 1861. During this time period, the legislature also regularly revised its House and Senate districts. After its secession, the state sent six representatives to the Confederate States Congress. During Reconstruction, the 1869 Texas Constitution apportioned the state four seats in the United States House of Representatives. The state only had one set of legislative districts, with each district electing one senator and two to four representatives. Texas's current redistricting system was established by its 1876 Constitution.1876 Constitution
The 1876 Constitution established the Texas Senate with 31 members. The Texas House of Representatives was given 93 members, but this number increased over the years until it reached its constitutional maximum of 150 in the 1920s. House districts at the time included single-member, multi-member, and floterial districts. The creation of new state House seats allowed for legislators to account for population growth in certain parts of the state while not endangering incumbents by altering districts elsewhere. Senate districts were single-member and independent of House districts, unlike under the 1869 Constitution. The Texas Constitution additionally limited counties to a maximum of one senator, which legislators used to maintain the status quo and protect incumbents for as long as they could. This strategy allowed for the passage of redistricting legislation at the beginning of every decade until the 1910s.Following the end of Reconstruction, Texas's government was controlled entirely by the Democratic Party, giving them full control over the state's redistricting process. The legislature frequently failed to pass congressional redistricting legislation during the first session after a census, allowing the new seats to be elected at-large. This ensured that the new congressmen would always be chosen by the state's overwhelmingly White electorate, and it allowed the legislature to draw districts around the new incumbents for the next election cycle.
Following the 1880 census, the legislature adopted a redistricting plan giving the state 11 congressional districts. The state gained two seats following the 1890 census, but the legislature initially failed to draw new districts in 1891, raising the possibility of the new seats being elected at-large. The legislature later passed a map with 13 districts in 1892. Texas gained an additional three seats after the 1900 census. Controversy arose during the 1901 redistricting over the placement of then heavily African American Colorado County. Democratic legislators feared that, if left in the 10th district, the county's vote could overwhelm the rest of its district and elect a Republican to Congress. The bill that eventually passed moved Colorado County to the 9th district, and neither district elected a Republican to Congress in the following decade. The legislature later revised its 1901 redistricting plan in 1909.
Prohibition (1910s)
Texas gained an additional two seats in Congress after the 1910 census. Legislators from West Texas sought redistricting to give greater representation to the growing region. Prohibitionist legislators similarly sought redistricting to increase their power in the state legislature. They held the majority of both chambers' redistricting committees, but governor Oscar Branch Colquitt threatened to veto any map that he saw as gerrymandered for either cause. During the regular session, representative Oscar Callaway spoke his opposition to the Senate's proposed congressional district map, as it drew him, as well as several other representatives, into districts with other incumbents. Despite the prohibitionists' apparent advantage, divisions within their caucus allowed the anti-prohibitionists to delay redistricting until a summer special session.Governor Colquitt made redistricting one of his top priorities for the August special session. Prohibitionist senators filibustered the passage of the congressional redistricting bill, and after exhausting the filibuster, they left the chamber to deprive it of a quorum. The building was then locked down until enough Senators were forcibly returned to the chamber to allow the bill to advance. Because bills required readings on multiple separate legislative days, the prohibitionist Senators again fled the chamber to prevent final passage, although they temporarily returned for an unrelated vote. With the congressional redistricting bill appearing to head towards defeat, the anti-prohibitionist senators and three prohibitionist senators pushed governor Colquitt to call another special session.
Despite failing to redistrict the state's congressional districts, the legislature successfully passed bills to redistrict the state House and Senate. At the very end of the session, the Senate had overcome the prohibitionist filibuster to pass a congressional redistricting bill, but the effort stalled in the conference committee. Governor Colquitt signed the new state House map, but he vetoed the state Senate map, calling it "monstrously unjust". Colquitt refused to call another special session after the congressional redistricting bill died. Because of this, the state did not receive new districts, instead electing its two new congressman through at-large districts. The legislature failed to draw new congressional district boundaries until 1917. These new districts in the 1918 elections led to the defeat of then at-large congressman A. Jeff McLemore, who had drawn the ire of his own party for his opposition to World War I.