1990 - 1991: Texas Democrats Redraw Electoral Districting Maps, Republicans Claim Gerrymandering

The 1990 federal census awards Texas three additional seats in its US Congressional delegation. The Democratic Party controls 19 of the current 27 seats, as it does the Texas legislature and the governorship, but population shifts and other factors have moved Texas in an increasingly Republican direction. Texas Democrats, led by Representative Martin Frost, respond by redrawing the electoral district map, as is the state’s responsibility under the Constitution, but Republicans and other critics say the new map unduly favors Democrats and is designed to ensure that Democrats retain a majority of Texas’s US Congressional delegation. Texas Republicans challenge the remapping in court, calling it “gerrymandering,” but the case is not ruled in their favor. [New York Times, 5/15/2003; FindLaw, 6/28/2006]