Advertise on podcast: Redistricting Texas

When the Texas House drew its redistricting maps during the most recent special session, incumbent lawmakers were largely protected, with their districts being shored up to hold control over the next decade.   Except for one.   Former State Rep. Jonathan Stickland joins Brandon Waltens for this episode of Redistricting Texas to take a look at how Republican lawmakers passed a map to give a Tarrant County House seat to the Democrats. Stickland explains how the politics of redistricting can quickly become personal, and just what concerned citizens can do to hold their lawmakers accountable.    

Consisting of 31 seats total, the Texas Senate currently maintains an 18 seat Republican majority. New maps passed by the Texas Legislature could increase that number to 19. But will Democrat lawsuits scuttle plans for the GOP? On this episode of Redistricting Texas, Jeramy Kitchen and Brandon Waltens sit down to talk about the new maps drawn for the Texas Senate, the uncertain road ahead in court, and what it could mean for the future of the Texas Legislature.

On the surface, Texas’ redistricting process is supposed to be apolitical; but in practice, it is one of the most political processes that the Texas Legislature engages in. The final result will determine the political disposition of lawmakers and, subsequently, policy in the Lone Star State for the next decade and beyond. In this introductory episode of a limited podcast series specific to Texas’ redistricting process, Trey Trainor, a current commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, helps explain the overall process and the rules that guide it, as well as the recent history from the last few times Texas has undergone redistricting. “There's absolutely going to be litigation coming out of redistricting. It always is, you know, it's a very partisan activity. It's one where Republicans and Democrats are pitted against each other, you know, trying to vie for the most seats. And so they're going to take every shot they can, and courts are often the way to do that. The unique element for this particular cycle of redistricting is that we'll probably see more litigation at the state level than we will at the federal level. The U.S. Supreme Court has kind of taken away a lot of the jurisdiction for federal courts to handle redistricting cases, based on the past couple of terms, in cases that they've handled,” said Trainor.