The state’s Hispanic population is now nearly as large as the non-Hispanic white population, with Texas gaining nearly 11 Hispanic residents for every additional white resident since 2010. Those trends set up a pitched battle for political control when state lawmakers redraw legislative districts.
U.S. Census Bureau
Analysis: Redistricting is boring, and that’s why it’s hazardous to voters
Most voters don’t pay a lot of attention to the redrawing of political maps every 10 years. That’s just the way legislators like it.
Texas will gain two seats in Congress as residents of color drive population gains
Texas will have 38 congressional seats as a result of the latest U.S. census. It’s one of six states to gain seats, and it’s the only state that will get more than one.
Latest census delay will push Texas’ redrawing of political maps into the fall
The Census Bureau now says it will get detailed results of the national population count to states by Sept. 30. That means Gov. Greg Abbott will almost certainly need to call lawmakers back for overtime in the fall to craft new Congressional and legislative districts.
Analysis: A delay in drawing new maps this year could slow next year’s elections
Delays in the delivery of court-approved political maps have disrupted past elections in Texas. And this year’s pandemic-related delays in the U.S. census have raised the possibility of jumbled election plans in 2022.
Census delays will force Texas lawmakers into a special session to redraw political maps
The Census Bureau revealed Wednesday that the detailed results lawmakers need to reconfigure congressional and state legislative districts won’t be available until at least two months after the end of the regular 2021 legislative session.
Reversing Donald Trump policy, Joe Biden will include undocumented immigrants in critical census count
President Donald Trump’s efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from congressional representation are out with his administration. But Texas lawmakers still face delays in receiving census results needed to redraw the state’s political maps.
Supreme Court says challenge to Donald Trump’s plan to not count undocumented people in congressional reapportionment must wait
A Pew Research Center study this summer found that if the country’s undocumented immigrants were excluded from apportionment, Texas would end up with one less U.S. House seat than otherwise expected.
Republicans kept their grip on Texas government in 2020. In 2021, they’ll be able to tighten it.
Because Republicans in the state House and Senate held onto their 20-year majority, they are positioned to further entrench their power until the next redistricting rolls around in 2031.
The census doesn’t count Arab Americans. That leaves some Texans feeling invisible.
The census does not include an option for people to identify as Middle Eastern or North African Americans. That leaves Arab Texans to identify as white or “other” on the all-important national count.

