Make sure you can vote before you read about what is at stake.
A District Designed to Disappear
Texas’ 35th Congressional District used to run from Austin to San Antonio along the I-35 corridor. It was a progressive, Hispanic-majority seat that elected Greg Casar in 2022. Then the Texas Legislature redrew the map. The new TX-35 keeps less than 10% of its previous constituents. Casar was drawn into the newly created TX-37. The district Trump would have lost by double digits now favors him by 10 points.
This is what redistricting as a weapon looks like in real time. Not abstract. Not theoretical. A sitting member of Congress had his district erased underneath him, and the seat was rebuilt to elect someone from the other party.
The Democratic Runoff: Galindo vs. Garcia
Two Democrats are competing today for the right to fight for a seat the map was designed to take from them.
Maureen Galindo is a fair housing advocate who has worked on tenant protections and affordable housing in Central Texas. She is running on a platform of housing affordability, healthcare access, and protecting the Voting Rights Act. Galindo has framed her campaign around the idea that redistricting was an attack on the community she has spent her career serving.
Johnny Garcia is a former sheriff’s deputy and law enforcement veteran. He is running as a moderate Democrat who can compete in a district that now leans Republican. Garcia argues that a candidate with a public safety background has the best shot at winning over the suburban and rural voters the new map added to the district.
The strategic question for Democrats is whether they run left and mobilize the Hispanic vote, or run toward the center and try to peel off moderates. The new map was drawn to make both strategies fail. That does not mean one of them will not work anyway.
The Republican Runoff: Lujan vs. De La Cruz
John Lujan won a 2021 special election in a state House district covering part of the same territory. Governor Abbott endorsed Lujan, framing him as the candidate with proven electability in the region. Lujan lost his House seat in the regular 2022 election, but Republicans argue the new congressional map is far more favorable.
Carlos De La Cruz secured Trump’s endorsement and is running to Lujan’s right on immigration and border enforcement. The Trump-Abbott split in this race mirrors the Paxton-Cornyn divide in the Senate runoff happening on the same ballot today.
The Redistricting Pattern
TX-35 is not an isolated case. It fits a national pattern we have been tracking.
In Tennessee, the legislature carved up its only Black-majority district eight days after the Supreme Court gutted VRA protections. In Georgia, a 72-hour special session eliminated two Black-majority congressional seats. In Louisiana, the case that started it all took away the state’s second Black-majority district.
Texas did it differently. The legislature redrew maps during its regular session in 2025, before the Callais ruling gave other states their opening. Texas did not need the Supreme Court’s permission. It had the votes and the will to do it without legal cover.
The result is the same: communities that elected their own representatives for a decade woke up in districts where their votes no longer decide anything.
What’s at Stake
The new TX-35 is 55% Hispanic by population. But the map added enough Republican-leaning precincts to push the district’s partisan lean to Trump +10. Hispanic voters are still the majority of residents. They are not the majority of the electorate the map was built for.
If Democrats hold this seat despite the gerrymander, it proves that maps can be beaten with turnout and organizing. If they lose it, Texas goes from four competitive congressional districts to two, and the path to representation for Hispanic communities in Central Texas narrows further.
What You Can Do
- Vote today. Polls are open 7 AM to 7 PM Central Time. Find your polling place at votetexas.gov.
- Tell Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It would restore federal preclearance for states with a record of discriminatory maps. Send a letter through Resist Bot.
- Follow the legal challenges. The NAACP and MALDEF are monitoring Texas redistricting for potential VRA challenges under the new legal standard.
Read more on the Civil Rights hub and our Texas state page.