EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A high-stakes federal hearing is playing out in El Paso over Texas’ newly redrawn congressional map that was enacted at the request of President Donald Trump and statewide Republican leaders. The League of United Latin American Citizens and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is holding a news conference amid the hearing to determine if Texas can use the map in the 2026 midterms.
When Texas first proposed redrawing its congressional map, critics decried it as a political power-grab to appease the president, while state leaders claimed it was necessary after the Department of Justice raised concerns about some majority non-white districts.
But now that the map is in federal court, the two sides have swapped stances.
The state now claims they acted for purely partisan gain, which the U.S. Supreme Court has said is lawful, while a group of individuals and advocacy organizations argue the Department of Justice’s involvement reveals unconstitutional racial motivation.
These plaintiff groups, who are also suing over the 2021 maps, have asked a district court in El Paso to block the maps from being used in the 2026 election. The nine-day hearing kicked off Wednesday, with state Rep. Joe Moody, a Democrat from El Paso, testifying that his Republican colleagues absolutely had partisan goals.
“But how you get there matters,” he said. And in this unusual mid-decade redistricting, the Legislature’s path to gain more Republican seats in Congress “depressed the ability of Black and Hispanic voters to elect their candidates of choice,” he said.
Moody testified alongside state Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat who spoke about the impact of the changes on her city’s historic Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Other state legislators are expected to testify for the plaintiffs’ side over the next days, before the state presents its witnesses.
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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