Texas House passes redrawn congressional map after hours of debate

AUSTIN - With national attention on the Texas redistricting dispute, House Republicans have approved a new congressional district map.

Democrats filed amendments to stall the vote, and they still plan to challenge the map in court.

New Texas map passes

The latest:

Democrats delayed the inevitable, but the clock ran out. The new map passed the House 88-52 on Wednesday.

Now that the congressional map has passed the lower chamber, the new map will be taken up by the Senate Thursday.

A new congressional map that could give Republicans five new seats in Congress cleared a big hurdle Wednesday. 

After being stalled in the House by Democrats who broke quorum by leaving the state in protest. 

Before the vote, Democrats criticized Republicans for not holding any hearings on the map in the second Special Session.

There are no major overhauls of the version from special session one, but a few subtle changes to some district boundaries.

‘Cowardice and cheats’

What they're saying:

"So let's talk about cowardice and cheats, because if you knew you could win this next election, you wouldn't be taking this effort to try to steal five seats from elected officials that members of color elected to represent them in Washington, D.C.," said Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston).

"You want transparency? Here's the U.S. Supreme Court's legal transparency. The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: Improve Republican political performance," said Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christie).

"Would you believe it would be a great process to include the public in a way that they could see what's going on, or do we want to do the things in the cloak of darkness here?" asked Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D-San Antonio). 

"Well, you've been gone in the cloak of darkness for 18 days," Hunter responded.

"I could have public input while you were gone," Hunter continued. "You prevented this. You were gone from acting."

"You removed key economic engines from CD 30, like Love Field in Downtown Dallas. Hell, you even took her home out of her district. She told you that, but you ignored her on that, too. Just like you ignored the thousands of Texans who voiced their strong opposition to this corrupt process," said Re. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie).

Is mid-decade redistricting allowed?

Dig deeper:

While it's not common, mid-census redistricting is not illegal.

Congressional districts are typically redrawn at the beginning of each decade to compensate for new census data, but the U.S. Constitution allows for the measure to be taken at other times as well.

Redistricting effects in North Texas

Local perspective:

In North Texas, the new map would turn Rep. Julie Johnson's District 32 seat from a Dallas County-based district to possibly stretching past Tyler in East Texas. 

The District 33 seat held by Rep. Marc Veasey moves out of Tarrant County exclusively into Dallas County. 

And Jasmine Crockett will no longer live in the district she represents. 

What's next:

The senate has a committee hearing Thursday morning. 

When the Texas Senate takes up the map on Thursday, there will be Democrat opposition, but not enough to sink the bill. 

A floor vote will be Thursday night, and if it passes, then it will be sent to Gov. Abbott for his signature. 

Texas Politics