Latest Texas redistricting map keeps key Fort Bliss areas, El Paso airport in Veronica Escobar’s district
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - Key areas of Fort Bliss and El Paso International Airport would stay in El Paso Democrat Veronica Escobar’s district under a congressional redistricting plan submitted Friday at the outset of a second special session of the Texas Legislature. The session was called to address congressional redistricting and other issues outlined by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The redistricting bill introduced in the first special session – which began in July and was disrupted by a walkout by Democrats that prevented a quorum – would have moved the Fort Bliss headquarters and its main housing areas into the 23rd Congressional District, represented by San Antonio Republican Tony Gonzales.
Escobar declined to comment to El Paso Matters, and Gonzales hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
The redistricting plan is subject to change as the Texas House and Senate debate its specifics.
The map in the first special session rekindled an ultimately unsuccessful effort by Gonzales in 2021 to include the Fort Bliss headquarters and main housing areas in his district. A bipartisan group of El Paso political and business leaders opposed the plan in 2021, saying that Fort Bliss and the airport were key economic engines for El Paso and should be part of the county’s primary congressional district, represented by Escobar.
After the Legislature approved keeping the airport and key Fort Bliss areas in Escobar’s district that year, Gonzales got into a nasty spat with some of those who opposed putting Fort Bliss in his district. He said a company owned by El Pasoan Woody Hunt – a prominent Republican campaign donor – should face a congressional investigation. No such investigation took place.
The current redistricting effort is at the behest of President Donald Trump, who asked Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s 38 U.S. House of Representative districts in a way that would make it likely that the GOP would pick up five additional seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans narrowly control the U.S. House now, and the party in charge of the White House usually loses seats in midterm elections. Trump’s efforts to tilt the electoral map in the middle of the decade led Democrats in California, New York and Illinois to threaten their own gerrymandering efforts to wipe out districts that currently favor Republican candidates.
Although the purpose of the redistricting is to give Republicans electoral dominance in 30 Texas House districts instead of the current 25, the map introduced in the first special session also made tweaks in some districts that didn’t alter the partisan balance, including the changes involving Fort Bliss.
House Bill 4, the redistricting bill introduced Friday by Republican Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi, uses the same lines to create five new GOP-dominant districts. The only changes from the map from the first special session were in El Paso County.
Enough Democrats stayed away from the Capitol on Friday to prevent a quorum at the start of the new special session, but the quorum is widely expected to be restored in the coming days.
Hunter, the chair of the House Redistricting Committee, has not responded to a request for comment. Democratic Rep. Joe Moody, the only El Pasoan on the House Redistricting Committee, declined to comment.
While most of the 62 House Democrats fled the state to block a quorum and derail the first special session earlier this month, state Rep. Vince Perez was the only one of the four El Paso House members to take part.
Moody and Rep. Mary González were present at the Capitol for at least part of the quorum break. Rep. Claudia Ordaz said she was dealing with a personal issue during the quorum break, but didn’t comment further.
Moody, who as House speaker pro tem is the highest ranking Democrat in state government, has been critical of the redistricting plan, calling it “fascist.” But he said he believed he would be more effective staying in Austin and raising objections to the bill.
