If Democrats win the majority of seats in the Texas House on Tuesday, they’ll have a way to push congressional redistricting out of Republican hands and into federal courts, plus they’ll have a powerful lever for negotiation with the Republican governor and Texas Senate on everything else.
The political attention is on the political maps lawmakers will be drawing next year, because the way those maps are drawn is often the difference between an elected official and a mere candidate — and the maps will remain in use for as long as 10 years. That kind of mapmaking lets politicians choose which voters are in which districts, to concentrate support and dilute opposition.
Much of the out-of-state political money flowing into Texas relates directly to the maps, and a recognition by Democrats elsewhere that what happens here can have an outsize impact on what happens in Washington, D.C.
