Thanks to a huge win in a local redistricting case, Texas Republicans could redraw congressional voting districts this year—a move that could help the GOP maintain a majority in the U.S. House in 2026.
“This is an extremely important story that no one is talking about at all,” Dr. Robin Armstrong told Texas Scorecard.
Armstrong is the Republican National Committeeman for the state of Texas.
He is also a member of the Galveston County Commissioners Court, where the game-changing redistricting case originated.
Last year, Galveston County won a major federal voting rights lawsuit that challenged how local Republican officials had drawn new voting precincts for county commissioners after the 2020 census.
The redistricting plan eliminated the lone Democrat commissioner’s precinct. It was also the only district with a majority of minority voters, which included a combination of blacks and Hispanics. Neither group alone makes up a majority in the county.
In the course of defending its political maps, Galveston County persuaded the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a long-standing precedent and rule that the Voting Rights Act does not require majority-minority districts to be drawn for “coalitions” of minority groups.
“As a result, we have an opportunity to revisit these districts,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said that five Texas congressional districts and 22 state legislative districts are coalition districts.
Coalitions almost always result in Democrat districts.
Attorneys representing Galveston County in the case argued that the Voting Rights Act was meant to protect individual minority groups’ right to participate in elections, not to guarantee Democrats will be elected.
In December, Armstrong discussed the implications of the new redistricting precedent with RNC Committeewoman Debbie Georgatos, who hosts the political podcast America Can We Talk.
“We now have a right—in fact, we have a duty—to redistrict the seats,” Armstrong told Georgatos.
“We are encouraging our state representatives and state senators to redraw these seats,” he said. “We have midterms coming up in 2026 and usually the Republicans lose congressional seats. We should not lose extra seats because we have failed to redistrict these seats appropriately.”
Normally, voting district lines are redrawn every 10 years to reflect population changes recorded by the decennial census.
Armstrong told Texas Scorecard this week that he has talked to “a number of legislators who are on board” with pursuing redistricting plans this year that could flip congressional seats from Democrat to Republican.
He noted that the Republican Party of Texas approved a resolution encouraging the legislature to “revisit” previously drawn election maps so they are consistent with the ruling against coalition districts.
The resolution adds that the Fifth Circuit’s decision “resonates far beyond Galveston County, setting a new precedent for redistricting at all levels of governance across Texas” and “provides counties, municipalities, and state officials with the tools to create fair, legally defensible district maps free from the partisan distortions of coalition claims.”
Armstrong believes the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of coalition districts nationwide, but in Texas, “This is the law now.”
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