KILLEEN, Texas — Texas lawmakers released their first draft of a new congressional map on Monday that could switch representatives for many people in central Texas. The goal of redistricting, on both sides of the aisle, is generally to protect incumbents or gain more party representatives.
Texas A&M Central Texas Political Science Professor Jeffrey Dixon told 6 News Tuesday that Republicans seem to be on defense this year.
"The one thing that is different this year is there seems to be more focus on protecting incumbents and less emphasis on maximizing the potential number of Republican seats so that Republican can focus on preserving as much as they can given the shifting demographics," Dixon said.
In order to give incumbents an easier time in the next election, new district maps are making big changes to several central Texas districts. Texas's 25th congressional district, held by Rep. Roger Williams, is moving north to a group of counties west of Dallas.
Voters in the area of Mills, Lampasas, Coryell, and Hamilton counties will be traded to other representatives, as will some voters in Bell County.
The area of Bell County including Killeen will be added to Texas's 11th congressional district, held by Rep. August Pfluger II, as will Lampasas and Mills counties. This would potentially dilute Democrat-leaning voters in the Killeen area with Republican voters as far west as Midland.
The new map would also trade Coryell, Hamilton, and Bosque counties to Texas's 31st congressional district and would give incumbent Rep. John Carter access to more Republican-leaning voters.
Texas's 17th congressional district, held by Rep. Pete Sessions would lose a few of it's southern counties but would expand east all the way to San Augustine County, potentially shoring up Republican-leaning voters for that district as well. Session's district would still include McLennan County.
Dixon told 6 News this strategy of diluting a Democratic-leaning area with known Republican voters can potentially discourage voting in the future.
"There is some link between that and lower turnout as people are more alienated from politics because they don't believe people like them can make a difference," Dixon said.
Dixon also said this redistricting strategy, often called gerrymandering, is used by both parties and is not against the law.
Lawmakers could run into a problem however, if the districting is challenged in court as diminishing the voting power of minorities.
"You are allowed to refuse to maximize the voting power of minorities but you are not allowed to minimize the voting power of minorities," Dixon said. "You are not allowed to do what the Voting Rights Act calls retrogression."
Dixon said the court system could get involved in making changes to redistricting maps if a legal challenge is successful.