Gov. Greg Abbott pledged to call repeated special sessions until the maps are enacted. Credit: Getty Images

The Texas Senate has approved controversial new congressional lines 19-2 in a charged special session, prompting a walkout by nine Democratic Senators who accuse the Republicans of executing a mid-decade redistricting attempt and in solidarity with their “House Democratic brothers and sisters.” 

Their exit, however, did not break the quorum.

State Senators Judith Zaffirini of Laredo and Juan Hinojosa of McAllen stayed behind and voted against the redistricting bill. The bill, which would have headed to the House, is now at a standstill due to the absence of Democratic House leaders who fled the state in early August to break quorum and avoid voting on a similar redistricting agenda.

So the Senate vote is symbolic.

“This is a 12-round fight,” said State Sen. Royce West. “The reality is that they have the votes in order to do this. But we, people around the country, understand exactly what’s going on. From that vantage point, we will win this particular fight at the end of the 12 rounds.”

In early July, the U.S. Department of Justice raised concerns about racial gerrymandering in four congressional districts, leading Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session later in July to authorize the redraw. These districts include Districts 9 (represented by Congressman Al Green), 18 (currently underrepresented), 29 (Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia) and 33 (Congressman Marc Veasey).

Democratic state representatives fled Texas in protest and to deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass the map. This led to threats of their arrest from the GOP-controlled House when the leaders returned to Texas and a daily $500 fee.

In a press conference, Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Carol Alvarado said their options to stop the maps within the chamber were limited, so they were using “every tool” available, including walking off the floor, to show solidarity with House Democrats who denied quorum earlier.

“We feel that’s where our priorities should be…tending to the flood victims and their families in the Hill Country,” Alvarado said. “There was not an opportunity to even really debate it to offer the motion…the flood bills, again, continue to take a back seat to pure politics and mid-decade redistricting.”

‘Racist takeover’

Texas Democrats walked out of a Senate session, condemning redistricting maps they say strip minority voting power. Credit: Texas Senate Democratic Caucus

Sen. Borris Miles of Houston, whose Congressional District 13 will be significantly affected, said that for more than 20 years, courts have found Texas guilty of suppressing Black and Hispanic voters.

“This is just another attempt at a hostile road, racist takeover of democracy being directed by the President of the United States to protect him and the Republican Party, followed through by the governor of this state and we’re tired of it,” Miles said. “What my colleagues and I are saying is we will not take part in democracy being washed out in this state of Texas.”

Calling it a “RIG-DISTRICTING” and a “complete sham,” Miles warned that the maps would strip political power from minority voters in districts like his.

“The President wanted 5 more seats and through the Department of Justice, he put out a hit list on Congressional districts that are majority-minority; three of these historically majority-minority districts are located in Senate District 13,” Miles said in a statement to the Defender. “The Republican leadership of this state then yielded to his demands and rammed racially motivated redistricting maps through this chamber. The redistricting map, which is already gerrymandered, re-gerrymandered them, packing and cracking minority communities to the point that they resemble Humpty Dumpty.”

Miles admitted that while the Democratic leaders lack the numbers, they still have the “spirit” to fight for their constituents, “by any means necessary.”

Republicans accused of following Washington orders

Racial demographic shifts in Texas’ minority-majority congressional districts under the proposed House redistricting plan.
Notes: Only the voting-age population (VAP) was considered for the charts. All numbers have been rounded off. A small variance may apply in some cases. Data source: DistrictViewer (Texas.gov) Chart credit: Tannistha Sinha

Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, dismissed arguments that both sides gerrymander. While redistricting is always political, he said Democrats do not redraw maps mid-decade at the direction of national party leaders. Johnson accused Texas Republicans of “pathetic obedience” to Washington, D.C., directives.

“These are defensive actions,” Johnson said of the Democratic walkouts.

Communities split, urgent bills sidelined

Several Senators shared stories of how their districts would be carved apart. 

State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin said her community would be “profoundly affected” by being split and “farmed out” to distant Republican representatives. She linked the redistricting fight to the state’s failure to act on urgent matters, like passing a red flag law after a recent mass shooting in her city or moving quickly on disaster aid after deadly floods.

State Sen. Molly Cook of Houston said many of her constituents had been “violently redistricted” out of home districts they had lived in for decades. She noted that Republicans could not even “symbolically put flooding first” on the agenda.

“The truth is, it’s been well over five weeks since the tragedy happened and every single day that has ticked by, the governor has had the power to move the money that those folks need,” Cook said. “We deserve a promise that money will start moving today. But instead we got a promise that we will call special session after special session and perpetuity, wasting your time, wasting your money and insulting not just the people who recently died in the most horrifying way, but every single one of our communities that has lived through a hurricane, a wildfire, a tornado, a power outage or any of the other horrific scenes that we are never prepared for in this state.”

Cook argued that instead of addressing infrastructure failures, housing shortages, or environmental hazards, such as a concrete batch plant spewing dust near a school in Cook’s district, Republicans are locked in a political power play.

Asked how they plan to respond if Republicans force another special session, Democrats did not directly reveal a strategy but emphasized long-term electoral change. Johnson said the ultimate answer is to “change the people in the seats” in the 2026 elections.

Galvanizing the base

Miles predicted that the Republican strategy would backfire. 

“The reality of this is these immoral, racist antics that they are performing here today and across the country are not doing anything but waking up our base,” he said. “It’s waking up Democrats across the country. So whether they wanna believe it or not, the antics that they’re performing today and going on across this country are not gonna do anything but make our people go out to vote.”

The fight is far from over. Abbott has signaled he will call as many special sessions as necessary to get the maps passed, meaning the battle over Texas’ political lines could stretch for months. 

“As soon as this one is over, I’m going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one,” Abbot said about calling more special sessions.

I cover education, housing, and politics in Houston for the Houston Defender Network as a Report for America corps member. I graduated with a master of science in journalism from the University of Southern...