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KVUE Texas Democrats face tough decisions after Supreme Court upholds new Texas congressional map
KVUE Texas Democrats face tough decisions after Supreme Court upholds new Texas congressional map
Author: Daniel Perreault
Published: 9:26 PM CST December 5, 2025
Updated: 12:11 PM CST December 6, 2025
AUSTIN, Texas — After Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Texas can use its new congressional district map, which more favors Republicans, candidates and members of Congress are making decisions ahead of the March primary election.
The ruling is a big win for Republicans and for President Donald Trump, who pushed lawmakers to redraw the congressional district map to secure five more Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a 6-to-3 decision, the justices overturned a lower court's ruling that the new map likely discriminates based on race. In his concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the motivation for the new map was, "partisan advantage pure and simple."
He also stated the lower court improperly inserted itself into the primary campaign because the candidate filing period is underway.
While the state can use this new map for now, Texas Democrats plan to return to the U.S. Supreme Court with a whole appeal to challenge it. Meanwhile, candidates can file to run in the primary election until Monday. Candidates and some members of Congress from Texas have been waiting to see which district they will run in before they officially file.
With the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the new maps for the 2026 midterm elections, longtime Austin Congressman, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett officially announced Friday that he will not run for reelection.
First elected to Congress in 1994, Doggett has represented several different districts as Austin’s explosive growth forced Texas to redraw its political boundaries over the years. Now 78, he is widely regarded as one of the most prominent Democratic voices from Texas, focusing on education, health care access and consumer protections.
“I am most appreciative for the opportunity to have represented our community in public office for most of the last 50 years—appreciative for the support and encouragement of so many neighbors as well as people from McAllen to San Antonio, from San Marcos to La Grange, who at various times have made my continued service possible—whether in CD10, CD25, CD35, or currently CD37,” Doggett said in a statement on Friday.
Under the new map, Texas Republicans redrew the Austin-area districts to favor Republicans further, shifting much of Austin into districts dominated by suburban and rural Republican voters.
In the new map, District 35 no longer stretches from Austin to San Antonio, but instead from Guadalupe County down to San Antonio and east of Interstate 35.
That district is currently represented by Congressman Greg Casar (D-Austin), meaning that Doggett, who represents the current District 37, would have to face off against Casar in a March primary. Instead of doing that, Doggett is choosing to retire. He vowed Friday to continue doing his part “to vigorously fight back and to help others here and across the country.”
“I will continue working with the same urgency and determination as if next year were my last, which in public office it will be,” Doggett said. “After that, I will seek new ways to join my neighbors in making a difference in the only town I have ever called home.”
Casar officially filed to run for reelection in the 37th district on Friday.
“We’re going to fight to ban gerrymandering nationwide, stop Trump’s corruption and make Congress work for workers, not just the billionaires,” Casar wrote on social media.
Republicans redrew the map in hopes of giving GOP candidates an advantage in CD 9 in Houston, CD 28 in the Rio Grande Valley, CD 32 in Dallas, CD 34 along the South Texas coast and CD 35 in Central Texas. Democratic incumbents in those districts now have to either run for another seat, retire or run in a district that is more Republican.
By shifting voters in Austin, Houston, North Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, it put more Democrats into already Democratic-held districts in some of the state’s biggest cities, such as San Antonio and Houston. Democrats would have larger margins in some districts, but they moved around Republican voters from red districts to other Democratic districts, like Casar’s and North Texas U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson’s.
In the two South Texas districts, which Trump would have won by 10 percentage points under the new lines, U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez will face difficult battles. However, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a statement Thursday that he believes they can still win.
“Our battle-tested Democrats in Texas, including Congressmen Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar, will win their newly-redrawn districts and render this Republican scheme futile,” Jeffries said.
In Houston, longtime Congressman Al Green’s district was redrawn to encompass much of the current 18th Congressional District, which has been vacant since the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner in March.
A runoff in a special election to fill that seat, between former Houston City Councilmember Amanda Edwards and Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, will take place at the end of January, about a month before the winner of that election will face Green in a March primary. The longtime congressman reiterated his plan to run in the 18th Congressional District to reporters during a press conference on Friday.
“The president's not going to run me out of office. That won't happen,” Green said. “I am going to be on the ballot. I will be running from the 18th Congressional District because that's where my home is. That's where my constituents, whom I've been representing for many years, are. It is also a place that, quite frankly, I have found to be a district that I can work with and people that I can be faithful to, that have been faithful to me in terms of helping me get things done in Congress.”
In North Texas, there are two seats for three Democrats: Reps. Jasmine Crockett, Julie Johnson and Marc Veasey.
Johnson’s 32nd congressional district was stretched into East Texas, shifting it from one Kamala Harris won by 25% to one Trump carried by 18%.
The new 30th District, which Crockett currently holds, is essentially her old district and includes part of Tarrant County, which Veasey represents presently. The 33rd District is entirely in Dallas County and includes parts of all three of the districts.
Crockett is considering running for U.S. Senate, and if she does, it would clear the way for Veasey and Johnson to run in different districts. If she does not, it could lead to a primary between Democratic incumbents or require someone to retire or run in an unfriendly, Republican-leaning district.
According to several reports, Veasey is likely going to run in the 30th Congressional District, while Johnson announced Friday she plans to run in the 33rd Congressional District.
“TX-33 is home to many families, small businesses, and neighborhoods that I have been proud to represent over the years,” Johnson said. “I'm running in TX-33 because these communities need someone who shows up, listens, and never stops fighting for them - no matter how the lines are drawn.”
Democrat John Lira is running in the newly redrawn 35th Congressional District.
“We're going forward full steam ahead at this point. The decision only calls us to put it in high gear and amplify what we were already doing,” Lira said. “We didn't want to get caught flat-footed during this two-week pause or two-week period where we were waiting on the Supreme Court to decide what they were going to do.”
Lira had been waiting for clarity from the courts to file. Now that the high court has weighed in, he said he plans to file to run in the new Texas 35th Congressional District this Sunday.
“It makes you kind of pause a little bit before you get out and knock doors because you don't know if those are going to be the right voters that you're going to need, in the next election,” Lira said. “Some donors, some supporters have said, we're ready to roll with you, but we're not quite ready to say anything yet until we get the decisions out.”
With the legal battle over for now, Lira said the political battle is now fully underway.
“It's going to be a little bit more education, a little bit more engagement. We have a little bit of an abbreviated timeline to do all that,” Lira said. “But this is politics in Texas, and you could always expect craziness.”