AUSTIN, Texas (CN) - Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives overcame weeks of delay to pass a controversial redistricting bill Wednesday, getting the state closer to redrawing its congressional districts to favor them in elections next year. 

After over eight hours of debate, the House approved the new map, outlined under House Bill 4 authored by Corpus Christi Republican Todd Hunter, in a party-line vote of 88-52.

Hunter did not mince words speaking to his Democrat colleagues - who are hot off the heels of a two-week-long quorum break.

"The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance," Hunter said at the start of Wednesday's session.

Under HB 4, Republicans could gain an additional five congressional seats, boosting their chances of holding onto power in the U.S. House of Representatives. Achieving that goal would satisfy President Donald Trump's demand for the Lone Star State.  

Democrats made several failed attempts to limit the bill through various amendments. 

One amendment, brought by state Representative Gene Wu of Houston, would have allowed the bill to take effect once the U.S. Attorney General released all files related to the investigation of late New York financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the Capitol Rotunda, protestors assembled as a show of opposition against HB 4. Austin-area Congressmen Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett spoke to the crowd while state lawmakers debated the bill. At times, their chants and cheers could be heard inside the House chamber during debate.

Hunter defended his partisan goals by pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2019 ruling in Rucho v. Common Cause, finding that political maps may be drawn to favor the political parties drafting them.

He also recalled a recent ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Petteway v. Galveston County, in which an en banc panel ruled that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does not allow a coalition of minorities to bring vote dilution claims against political maps. 

The redistricting venture is entirely legal based on these rulings, Hunter claimed, despite Democrats' protest that the maps are being redrawn ahead of the 2026 midterm elections instead of at the end of the decade.

Democrats' attacks against the map primarily lie in the effect it will have on Black and Latino communities. They say that HB 4 is racially gerrymandered, which has been found unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

"Through racial gerrymandering, and these maps crack and pack districts of color, silence their voices, their votes, and put politics over people in the most dramatic way possible," Representative Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, said during a speech. 

It is this very line of attack that many are expecting to be used in the coming court challenges against the map once the Texas Senate has approved it and Governor Greg Abbott has signed it into law. 

During a press conference after the vote, Wu - who also serves as the House Democratic Caucus Chairman and was one of several Texas Democrats who left the state to break quorum - told a crowd of supporters that their next best hope lies in the courts. 

"This part of the fight is over, but it is merely the first chapter," he said.  

Representative John Bucy, an Austin Democrat, said "House Bill 4 is not about representation. It is not about fairness. It is a desperate mid-decade power grab, engineered in Washington, executed in Austin, and paid for by the Texas we are supposed to represent. Let me be clear, this is Donald Trump's map."

But Representative Hillary Hickland, a Belton Republican, said the map would better reflect the gains Trump made among Latinos in the state in the 2024 general election. Hickland said that Democrats make an insulting assumption that a person's vote is connected to their skin color.  

"Let's be clear, it is simply not accurate to assume that minorities will always vote one way," Hickland said during a floor speech. "We don't have to look any farther than the most recent election for proof... when we look at the details of these district lines, they reflect political performance."

With the fight over redistricting moving out of the House, Democrat members who broke quorum earlier this month are now allowed to walk freely without a police escort. 

Fort Worth Democrat Representative Nicole Collier was detained in the House chamber for over two days after refusing to sign a permission slip that Republican instituted, preventing Democrats from leaving the chamber without an escort. She was joined by her fellow members in solidarity and received calls of praise from national Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The quorum breakers are still facing legal challenges from Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed petitions with the state supreme court to expel them from office on grounds of abandonment. On Wednesday, Abbott added additional items to the special session agenda, one of them being to "impose penalties or punishments" against lawmakers who fled the state.  

As Texas gets within striking distance of changing its congressional maps, California lawmakers have commenced work on their own redistricting plan to counteract Republican gains. Democrats in the Golden State are expected to hold a vote on several bills on Thursday that will call and fund a special election where voters will decide whether to adopt a new congressional map. 

While redistricting was certainly one of the most controversial issues Abbott placed on the agenda for the second special session, it is not the only thing lawmakers have been tasked with. The governor has also requested legislation addressing the July 4 floods in Central Texas and regulating the state's consumable THC market.

Source: Courthouse News Service