Jasmin Espinosa BROWNSVILLE – Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 4 into law Aug. 29, redrawing the Texas district map ahead of the 2026 elections for the U.S House of Representatives.
Alvaro Corral, assistant political science professor, said redistricting is held every 10 years to reflect on the population of individuals within the states.
“Sometimes a lot of states, especially those that are growing like Texas, continue to get more seats in congress,” Corral said.
He explained that because of the Texas population growth, two new congressional districts were added and the Texas legislature redrew the lines to bring in more voters to certain districts.
The new Texas district map was filed in mid-August and shows the cities Mission and Mcallen moving from District 15 to District 28 and cities such as Mercedes, Donna and Weslaco transferring to District 15 from District 34.
Corral said the courts are required by the State Legislature to redraw districts only if it is based on a racial gerrymandering or discrimination, however that is not the case this year.
“They [drew] the maps at the moment, this was done over the course of just a couple of weeks,” Corral said. “The origin of what exact entity and who drew these lines remains an open question and there were only three quotes, “field hearings” by this committee; none of which were in South Texas.”
In a statement sent to KVAQ-TV, Vicente Gonzalez, District 34 Congressional Representative, stated,
“Governor Abbott has now called two special sessions to appease President Trump and rig this next election in republicans’ favor. This new congressional map is a blatant effort to stack the deck against people of the Rio Grande Valley and dilute our voice in Washington. I encourage students to engage in the political process, get informed on the issues, and raise their voices against this un-American power grab.”
Click here to see a full map of the redrawn districts.
