San Antonio stands to lose one of its congressional districts and up to two of its Democratic U.S. House members under Texas Republicans’ redrawing of the state’s political districts, Punchbowl News reports, citing an image of the GOP’s proposed map leaked before its official release.
The map, reportedly due out later today, would create five new House seats that President Donald Trump is expected to carry by 10 or more points, likely giving Republicans an advantage of 30 seats to eight controlled by Democrats, Punchbowl News’ number crunching shows. At present, Texas has 25 Republican representatives and 12 Democrats, while one seat is vacant.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently ordered the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature to redraw the state’s House maps at the behest of Trump. The president’s deep unpopularity is likely to mean trouble for the Republicans in the 2026 midterms, and the party is desperate to avoid losing control of the House.
The map shows that two of the five Dems most endangered by the retooling of the state’s map have districts that include parts of the Alamo City — U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, whose 35th District includes downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin, and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose 28th District includes much of South Texas plus eastern Bexar County.
Under the redrawn map, the 35th District would no longer include Austin, leaving Casar and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who serves Austin’s 37th District, in likely competition to see who represents the capital city’s central area.
Meanwhile, Cuellar’s district has shifted increasingly Republican, and the removal of San Antonio voters could make it harder for the moderate Dem to stay in office, especially as he faces federal bribery and money laundering charges.
San Antonio — one of the red state’s blue urban centers — also would see its number of congressional districts drop from five to four, according to the map shared by Punchbowl News. Democrats now represent three of those five districts. Under the redrawing, the four districts would probably be split between Democrats and Republicans.
After the map leaked, Casar wasted no time calling out Texas Republicans for trying to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters.
“Merging the 35th and the 37th districts is illegal voter suppression of Black and Latino Central Texans,” tweeted Casar, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “By merging our Central Texas districts, Trump wants to commit yet another crime — this time, against Texas voters and against Martin Luther King’s Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
Casar urged concerned voters to fight back.
“If Trump is allowed to rip the Voting Rights Act to shreds here in Central Texas, his ploy will spread like wildfire across the country,” he added. “Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map.”
Despite the map’s implications for San Antonio, its biggest blows to Democrats appear to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley — areas political experts largely predicted would be the main targets or Abbott and state Republicans.
Districts being shaken up there include U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson’s 32nd District in Dallas, U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey’s Fort Worth and Dallas-spanning 33rd District and U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s 34th District in the Valley, according to Punchbowl News’ analysis. The proposed map also would create a new GOP-leaning district in Houston.
In an emailed statement, progressive political action committee the Lone Star Project accused state Republicans of trying to nullify the voting strength of minority neighborhoods.
“The 13 existing districts where minority citizens have the ability to elect their candidate of choice have been shuffled, divided, and abused leaving, at best, eight districts where minority citizens will have the strongest voice,” the group said. “If the Voting Rights Act exists as a law to protect minority voting rights, this map violates it.”
As Punchbowl News points out, the proposed map could undergo changes as it’s fought over by Texas lawmakers. Further, some political experts warn Republicans may not be able rely on all five districts theoretically redrawn to their favor to break that way in coming elections.
Even so, the map renews concerns by voting-rights groups that Abbott’s scheme will suppress votes of Blacks and Latinos and ratchets up pressure for Texas Democrats to use everything in their arsenal to stop or delay the redistricting. Further, the map could light a fire under legislatures in blue states to force through redistricting ahead of the midterms.
“Democrats looking to get caught trying should strongly consider a quorum break — on moral, legal, and Biblical grounds — in line with a legacy of strong leaders who cemented the rights being threatened today,” Kathleen Thompson, executive director of left-wing advocacy group Progress Texas, said in a statement.
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This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.