Texas Governor Greg Abbott has passed Texas’ new political maps for the state's congressional e legislative districts, as well as the Board of Education, aimed at strengthen the majority of the Republican Party in this rapidly diversifying state.

The maps were approved by the state Legislature last week under the redistricting process that takes place every ten years after the release of the new 2020 Census data, days before Senate Republicans in Washington blocked the   Freedom Vote Act, which provided tools to suppress this kind of gerrymanders, as pointed out here.

The new map can consolidate the power of white and non-Latino voters, and then eliminate political competition in the suburbs of this increasingly changing state. With these new maps, the number of Latino-majority constituencies would decrease from eight to seven, and it is important to note that "the new districts will be used for the first time in next year's primary and general elections, preventing any court interventions”.

This shift was harshly criticized by state and national Democrats, who blamed Republican lawmakers in Texas for their actions this year, resulting in the implementation of strongly partisan congressional maps.

“Texas’ new Senate map draws safe terms for Republican candidates facing competitive races as their districts diversified over the last 10 years. As of October 2021, the chamber’s 31 seats were shared to 18 Republicans and 13 Democrats. In the 2020 elections, Trump won 16 districts, and Biden won 15 districts. Under the new maps, Trump would have won 19, and Biden would have won 12. That means Trump won 52.1% of the statewide vote and would have won more than 61% of the new Senate districts”.

It is important to note that this is the first time in decades that Texas doesn't need federal approval to implement new maps. “2021 was the first time in nearly 50 years that Texas could implement new legislative and congressional districts without having to prove ahead of time that the maps don’t undermine the electoral power of non-white voters”. There was a major backlash against all we achieved after lots of struggle by civil rights defenders and the non-white population in the fight against the discrimination that political maps impose.

In the current context, the approval of the “Freedom Vote Act” is a key element to prevent possible backlash in the process of the dispute over political power.

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