Texas’ primary elections on Tuesday are among the first in the nation this year, and for millions of voters, their choices for Congress are different than last time.
Months after Texas set off a nationwide scramble to redraw U.S. House maps ahead of November’s midterm elections, voters are casting ballots under the new boundaries. President Donald Trump last year pressured Republican-led states to alter congressional districts with the goal of blunting Democrats’ chances to reclaim power.
In Texas, where one of the nation’s biggest U.S. Senate races is also unfolding, the new maps are engineered to help Republicans win five additional House seats. The changes fused liberal Dallas neighborhoods with conservative pockets of East Texas and shifted lines along the U.S.-Mexico border to seize on GOP gains with Hispanic voters.
The redrawn boundaries for partisan gain worry some Democratic voters about representation. Republican supporters see a fairer reflection of the state’s conservative politics. And in corners of Houston, outright confusion persists.
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‘We don’t feel at home’
Angela Juergens, 37, grew up in New York and moved to Texas after college to work as a public school art teacher. Now a married stay-at-home mother of two, she has questioned living in a state governed by hard-right Republicans but found community with like-minded Democratic voters in her leafy Dallas neighborhood.
Juergens formerly lived in a district that Kamala Harris carried by double-digits in the 2024 presidential election and was represented by Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson. But the new maps moved her street into Republican Rep. Lance Gooden’s district, which stretches more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) east into Texas’ rural, piney woods.
“We felt represented, but with this change, we did not elect Lance Gooden and we don’t feel at home with that,” she said.
“While this administration feels like it’s out of control, we need some checks and balances in the government,” Juergens said. “And we need a true representation of all the people and it just feels like they are just trying to cut it all out.”
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‘It’s just so extreme’
Ryan Vannest, 53, has been a Republican voter since 1990 and long admired GOP figures like Ronald Reagan, John McCain and George H.W. Bush.
The retired high school teacher, who lives along the U.S.-Mexico border, was not thrilled that he went from Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s district to one represented by Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar, who faced bribery and conspiracy charges until he was pardoned by Trump. “We just need new people,” Vannest said.
He said he dislikes Trump and cast protest votes for actors during all three of his presidential campaigns. Redrawing maps to gain a partisan edge doesn’t sit well with him.
“It’s just so extreme,” Vannest said. “They’re pandering to the elite, rich, white folk who just want to keep themselves in power. The redistricting, it’s just another example of it, trying to keep power.”
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‘I think they believe in divide and conquer’
When Clara Faulkner moved into the Fort Worth suburb of Forest Hill nearly 50 years ago, almost no other Black residents lived there. But she gradually watched the community shift into a racially diverse area and part of a safely Democratic congressional district.
The new map moves Faulkner, an 83-year-old former mayor in the small town of about 14,000 residents, into an overwhelming right-leaning district held by Republican U.S. Rep. Roger Williams. Roughly half of residents are white in her new district that stretches into mostly rural counties. “It’s just outlandish racism, right in your face,” Faulkner said.
“How the Republicans operate has never been a benefit to me,” Faulkner said. “And the way they draw the Republican districts just to tear our neighborhoods apart, I think they believe in divide and conquer.”
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‘I stick with the party’
Kenneth Crawley, 81, a retired nurse living in Mission along the U.S.-Mexico border, said he didn’t like being moved out of Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s district.
But he also believes it’s important that Republicans remain in power, saying they best represent his own desire for low taxes and strong public safety. He votes unapologetically for a straight-GOP ticket.
“I stick with the party, and the party that I stick with is the Republican Party because that’s the things that they support,” Crawley said. “In this new district, the Democrats, they want to let all these foreigners come across the border. That’s not what I want.”
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‘They can’t identify with us’
Rene Martinez, 79, a Democratic voter, was also moved into Gooden’s solidly Republican district. He worries that concerns over farm subsidies or health access in rural areas Gooden represents are much different than his priorities in Dallas, where he is president of a local council of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“I can’t identify with it. They can’t identify with us,” Martinez said.
He still has hopes this election year for Democrats even though his district is not expected to be competitive. Martinez pointed to the stunning special election upset in January when a Democrat flipped a state Senate district that Trump carried by double digits in 2024.
“I’m feeling like we’ve got some tailwinds behind our sails a little bit,” he said.
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‘If I’m in a different district, that doesn’t change anything’
Republican voter Luke Wilkinson, a 43-year-old inventory manager at a car dealership in the the Rio Grande Valley, doesn’t consider redistricting a big deal.
For one, he is skeptical that “my vote or my opinion matter all that much.” He said he has a job to do, bills to pay and other things to worry about. He was also drawn into Cuellar’s district and called the congressman “a decent enough guy.” But he says he’ll still vote for the GOP nominee because the party reflects his beliefs.
“I’ll still vote. I’ll vote the way I feel and what my heart says,” Wilkinson said. “If I’m in a different district, that doesn’t change anything.”
Jamie Stengle, John Hanna And Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
