Redistricting has been a big topic in Texas recently, with the Republican Party calling for redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm election. This redistricting comes at the request of President Donald J. Trump. The move is unusual because of the request and the fact that redistricting traditionally takes place every 10 years after the census.
“The whole process is usually done through legislative mandate in Texas because the state has gained or lost representatives, or through a court order,” said Dr. Cody Smith, a history professor at North Lake.
This push has caused a major ruckus in Texas, with Democratic lawmakers breaking quorum by fleeing the state to make a point against the redistricting efforts. Breaking quorum happens when there are not enough members of the legislature or an organization to conduct official business.
Smith says that’s not anything new. He says both Democrats and Republications have used the tactic.
“I think each time they have done that the leaving party has not gotten what they wanted anyway,” Smith said. “If you ask me, it’s political theater. They’re trying to score points with their constituents.”
The Democrats say that the redistricting is further adding to the gerrymandering problem in Texas, while Republicans say it’s an even divide. According to Smith, at issue is a case left over from the Biden administration when the Department of Justice sued Galveston County over how they drew the district. The DOJ lost the case and Texas has been slow to redraw the district maps. Trump demanded the districts be redrawn and Texas complied.
Both sides have accused the other of gerrymandering. That’s when the state districts are divided unevenly so that the number of constituents is biased towards one party, even if that is not truly representative of the district. Texas gerrymandering accusations have been around for a very long time.
“Gerrymandering has always been a problem,” Smith said. “Both parties do it, depending on who’s in charge in the state.”
Texas is not the only state that has been involved in gerrymandering. “There are very serious cases of gerrymandering in a lot of states,” he said. “I know we’re just talking about Texas, but if you look at, even if you go back and look at old Texas maps, there’s some districts where you’re like, ‘how is this ever a district when you look at Texas law?’ Because Texas law basically says, ‘hey, it needs to make geographic sense and population sense, right?’”
Texas law is written in a way that is intended to prevent gerrymandering as much as possible. “It is a Texas law that they [lawmakers] have to try to be as fair and objective and try to represent how the state votes, how those areas vote, as much as possible,” Smith said.
Even though Texas is facing accusations of gerrymandering, Smith said the new map is “fairly well drawn. It looks normal.”
“When I looked at the map, there’s probably like 2 districts where you’re kind of like, ‘that looks a little off,’” he said. “But in the grand scheme of things, when we have 30, 40 plus districts, however many we have, it’s not that bad.”
Despite the changes that are occurring in the districts, Smith stated that the people’s right to vote would not be affected in the process.
“It may change how certain areas are represented, but it’s, as far as your right to vote, you still have it, you’re still going to be able to exercise it,” he said. “It’s just your representation may look a little different.”
Students who are eligible to vote may not be able to see the effect on their district depending where they live.
“Most of the districts that I think most of the students live in are probably going to be fairly unaffected,” Smith said. “Maybe if you live in certain parts of East Dallas, that may change. East and maybe South Dallas may change a little bit. But other than that, I think most students on the west side of Dallas County, probably not affected all that much. But it’s just part of the whole legislative judicial process that we’re going through.”
