In the heart of Acres Home, a historic Black neighborhood newly placed in Texas Congressional District 29, voters are not waiting for political mailers or scripted ads to make sense of the 2026 election cycle.
At the Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church, local leaders hosted a candidate forum that brought Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia and her Democratic challengers, Jarvis Johnson and Robert Slater, face-to-face with residents navigating a political landscape reshaped by redistricting.
Martha Fierro, the sole Republican candidate, was not in attendance.
For many in Acres Homes, roughly 10 miles northwest of downtown Houston, public debates provide an insight into candidate campaigns and an exercise in community agency.
The new TX-29
Texas’ mid-decade redistricting, signed into law in August 2025, challenged in court, and upheld for use in the 2026 elections, significantly altered the composition of the 29th Congressional District.
Historically, a heavily Latino district, eligible voter demographics under the new lines changed from about 63% Hispanic and 18% Black to roughly 43% Hispanic and 33% Black in TX-29, according to Ballotpedia.
That demographic shift, spurred by House Bill 4 during the 89th legislative session and legal wrangling over its implementation, means that historically Black neighborhoods like Acres Homes and Independence Heights, previously outside TX-29, are now part of the conversation.
Under the new map,
- The old TX-29 residents make up 37% of the new TX-29’s residents
- The old TX-18 residents make up 26% of the new TX-18’s residents
- The old TX-9 residents make up 3% of the new TX-9’s residents
TX-29 is now classified as a solid Democratic district. Democrats hold a baseline advantage greater than 20 percentage points, a new Texas Southern University study says. In recent election modeling, the Democratic nominee is considered a virtual lock in November 2026.
Longtime residents now find themselves voting in a district whose identity and electoral history they’re just beginning to explore.
Political scientist Mark Jones, a co-author of the TSU study, said, “We’re in a new world when it comes to limits placed on redistricting.” He argues that recent federal court rulings have weakened the Voting Rights Act’s limits on redistricting, especially protections for “coalition districts” where Black and Latino voters together form a majority.
Because of that shift, Republican mapmakers in 2025 felt freer than they did in 2021 to redraw Houston-area districts like TX-9, TX-18 and TX-29 more aggressively for partisan advantage.
The result, Jones says, was an effort to turn three reliably Democratic districts into two safe Democratic seats and one more competitive or Republican-leaning seat.
“If you had to pick a group to navigate this relatively confusing situation we find ourselves in, we are talking about some of our best informed voters and most motivated voters, but that doesn’t mean that there still won’t be quite a bit of confusion,” he said, referring to the redrawn lines.
Recent Democratic Primary electorate (2022 & 2024 averages)
Race of voters:
- Black voters: 44%
- White voters: 31%
- Hispanic voters: 22%
Although Hispanics are the largest CVAP group, Black voters have been the largest bloc in Democratic primaries.
Gender:
- Women: 63%
- Men: 37%
Age:
- 65+: 45%
- 35–64: 43%
- 18–34: 12%
What the community says
Organizers say the forum was born out of concern that voter confusion, common after redistricting, could dampen civic engagement in neighborhoods often overlooked between election cycles.
For residents like Felicia Light, confusion about boundaries has real consequences.
As an election judge, a precinct chair, as well as the vice president of Super Neighborhood 6, she tied unclear representation to the community’s ongoing struggles with flooding, infrastructure needs, rising taxes, and housing insecurity.
Light also pointed to the confusion the redistricting saga has introduced. What has historically been a part of the 18th Congressional District is now in the 29th.
“We’ve been so without representation for entirely too, too long since the late congressman Sylvester Turner passed away,” Light told the Defender. “Because they’ve divided us for so long, it’s caused so many issues…it also causes another problem because it confuses people from the 18th to the 29th with all the redistricting.”
She added that without representation, federal funds for storm recovery and infrastructure in Black neighborhoods go unaddressed.
Widespread gentrification, on the other hand, is changing the face of Black neighborhoods.
“We deal with housing because gentrification is real,” Light said. “With all the developments out here, we’re losing our property at Acres Home. It’s taxing us out of it. Our seniors are losing their property to taxes and things like that. The district itself is changing.”
For many Houstonians, the forum was a rare opportunity to feel seen by congressional contenders.
“Health care is important. For a lot of people, it’s also been housing,” said Ashley Mosley, a long-time resident of Acres Homes, emphasizing the need for a strong voter turnout.
As the mother of a teenager who attends private school, she also expressed concern about education policies.
“On the local level, we have the vouchers. At the national level, we have the dismantling of the Department of Education, which has a trickle-down effect, and that is concerning for me as a parent,” Mosley said, adding that there are several schools that do not accept vouchers.
While the issues took the forefront, the cost of addressing them also surfaced. John Glenn, a 72-year-old native Houstonian, stressed the new representative’s ability to bring in money.
“That money is spread out the way that people can see improvement,” he said. “You go into Congress, you know you got a battle, and we got to eliminate connected people who have no substance to themselves.”
Candidates making their case
Sylvia Garcia, the incumbent, leaned into her legislative experience and committee seniority at the forum.
Elected in 2018 and the first Latina to represent CD 29, Garcia highlighted her work on housing affordability and securing funding for infrastructure projects and disaster resilience that affect greater Houston.
“I’m running for reelection so I can continue fighting for working families to make sure that we can lower costs, that we’ve got access to healthcare for everyone, that we protect Obamacare and make sure that those millions of Americans that would be without insurance but for Obamacare continue to have it,” Garcia said.
She also pledged to address rising housing and grocery costs, promising to mitigate the impact of tariffs on regular Houstonians and standing up to Republican ideology.
“I want to make sure that we have a good economy for all of us,” Garcia said. “People are tired of living paycheck to paycheck.”
Jarvis Johnson, a former state representative and Houston city council member, focused his message on grassroots empowerment and voter turnout.
“I am Acres Homes,” Johnson said to emphasize his connection to the community. “I grew up in this community, got married in this community. My children were raised in this community. I still live in this community.”
Johnson said the one who represents the district should understand the pulse of the district.
“You can’t simply be an outsider who wants to come in and give your ideas on what you think the community needs,” he said.
He said he would address rising property taxes, touting earlier legislation that created the Houston Land Bank, resist Republican policies, and bring in federal dollars for drainage and flood mitigation.
Johnson highlighted his initiatives as a city council member, explaining he had the largest CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) in Houston, getting “Wheatley Street done”, “making sure that Garden City had its fire hydrants,” and giving “high school students an opportunity to get their first job and for ex-felons to get a second chance.”
“I’ve been living at the Texas Capitol, and I’m going to deliver in the nation’s capital, because this Democratic Party needs new energy,” Johnson concluded.
Robert Slater, a formerly incarcerated businessman, offered a contrast, positioning himself as an outsider without political experience but with ideas to develop the district. He is running on lowering property taxes and housing affordability,
“People have written off Acres Homes as a disqualified community,” Slater said. “People have written off so many Black people as a disqualified community. I’ve lived those experiences…there’s so many times that I was a statistic.”
He said he made “bad choices” that did not reflect his upbringing and pointed to a lack of mentorship that could keep him “off the streets and out of jail.” “I don’t want other young Black boys, young Black and brown kids to go through the same thing,” Slater added.
But, he later became a “success story,” Slater said, becoming a restaurateur and advocate for formerly incarcerated individuals.
