In Texas, legislative district lines are drawn by the Texas Legislature, which is required to redraw all 150 state House districts, 31 state Senate districts, 38 U.S. House districts, and 15 State Board of Education districts at its first regular session after each federal census.1State of Texas. Texas Constitution Article 3 Legislative Department If lawmakers fail to produce state House and Senate maps, a five-member backup panel called the Legislative Redistricting Board takes over. Federal courts frequently end up with the last word when maps are challenged.
The Legislature Is the Primary Mapmaker
The Texas Constitution assigns redistricting to the Legislature itself.1State of Texas. Texas Constitution Article 3 Legislative Department Redistricting bills follow the same path as any other legislation: introduction in either chamber, committee hearings with public testimony, and passage by a majority vote in both the House and Senate before going to the governor.2Texas Redistricting. Redistricting Home
The process is openly political. Whichever party controls each chamber chooses the committee chairs who manage the redistricting bills, decides which proposals come up for a vote, and sets the ground rules for handling competing maps. Lawmakers use specialized software loaded with census data, voter history, and demographic information. The same population numbers can produce very different districts depending on who is holding the pen.
The Governor Signs or Vetoes
Once both chambers pass a redistricting bill, it goes to the governor, who can sign it, let it become law without a signature, or veto it. A veto returns the bill to the Legislature, which can override it only with a two-thirds vote of members present in each chamber. Overrides are rare, since the governor and legislative majority in Texas are usually from the same party.
The governor’s role matters most for the congressional and State Board of Education maps, because those map types have no constitutional backup. If the governor vetoes one and the Legislature cannot override it, the only paths forward are a governor-called special session or litigation that lands the map in court. State House and Senate maps work differently: a failure during the regular session triggers the Legislative Redistricting Board and bypasses the governor entirely.
The Legislative Redistricting Board
The Legislative Redistricting Board, or LRB, was created by a 1951 constitutional amendment to keep the Legislature from running out the clock on state legislative maps. It activates automatically if the Legislature adjourns its first post-census regular session without passing House and Senate redistricting plans.1State of Texas. Texas Constitution Article 3 Legislative Department The board must convene in Austin within 90 days after the session ends and has 60 days from that point to adopt new maps.2Texas Redistricting. Redistricting Home
Its five members are all statewide officeholders:
- Lieutenant Governor
- Speaker of the House of Representatives
- Attorney General
- Comptroller of Public Accounts
- Commissioner of the General Land Office
Three members form a quorum, and three signatures are enough to approve a plan. Once signed and filed with the Secretary of State, the plan carries the force of law without the governor’s signature or any further legislative action.1State of Texas. Texas Constitution Article 3 Legislative Department If the LRB itself fails to act, the Texas Supreme Court can order it to do its job through a writ of mandamus.
One boundary to keep straight: the LRB has no authority over congressional or State Board of Education maps. Those remain exclusively with the Legislature and the governor, with courts as the ultimate backstop.2Texas Redistricting. Redistricting Home
The board has been activated three times. It first convened in 1971 to draw new Senate districts after the Legislature failed to act. It stepped in again in 1981 after the Texas Supreme Court overturned the Legislature’s House plan. Most recently, the LRB convened on June 6, 2001, and adopted both House and Senate plans on July 24 of that year after the 77th Legislature adjourned without finishing the job.3Texas Redistricting. History The Legislature completed its redistricting work in both 2011 and 2021, so the board has not been needed since.
Courts Often Have the Final Say
Redistricting litigation in Texas is routine. Lawsuits arrive in two main situations: when the political branches deadlock and no valid map exists, or when an enacted map is challenged as unconstitutional or in violation of federal law. The most common claims allege that maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting minority voting strength, or that they violate the Equal Protection Clause through intentional racial discrimination. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Texas on both grounds, alleging that recent congressional and state House maps were drawn to minimize the ability of Latino and Black voters to elect their preferred candidates.4United States Department of Justice. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against the State of Texas to Challenge Statewide Redistricting Plans
When a court strikes down a map, it typically orders the Legislature to draw a replacement by a set deadline. If lawmakers cannot or will not act, the court draws the map itself. That is how many Texas redistricting fights actually end: a federal court imposes interim maps that stay in effect until a legally valid plan is adopted.
For decades, Texas also had to clear new maps with the U.S. Department of Justice or a federal court in Washington before using them, under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder struck down the formula that identified which states were covered, which made the preclearance requirement inoperative.5Library of Congress. Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 Texas can now put new maps into effect immediately, and challengers must sue after the fact. The 2021 cycle was the first time in nearly half a century that Texas drew maps without needing federal approval first.
Redistricting Does Not Have to Wait for the Next Census
Neither the U.S. Constitution nor Texas law limits map-drawing to once per decade. Texas used that gap in 2003, when the Legislature redrew its congressional map between censuses at the urging of then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The fight was intense enough that Democratic state legislators fled to Oklahoma and New Mexico to break quorum, forcing Governor Rick Perry to call multiple special sessions. The U.S. Supreme Court partially struck down the resulting map in LULAC v. Perry (2006), finding that one district violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, but it declined to rule mid-decade redistricting itself unconstitutional.
Texas did it again in 2025. Governor Greg Abbott called a special session to redraw the congressional map adopted just four years earlier, with the stated goal of converting several competitive or Democratic-leaning seats into reliably Republican districts ahead of the 2026 elections. The new map passed both chambers on party-line votes and was signed into law. Legal challenges followed almost immediately.
How You Can Weigh In
Texas offers several ways for residents to participate in redistricting. Redistricting bills go through committee hearings where any resident can register to testify in person or in writing, through the House and Senate redistricting committee websites.6Texas Redistricting. Public Participation
The state also makes mapping tools public. DistrictViewer lets you view proposed maps, compare them against current boundaries, search by address, and pull demographic data for individual districts. If you want to draw your own map, the Legislature’s redistricting application, RedAppl, is available to the public by appointment. Proposals built in most redistricting applications can be submitted to the Texas Legislative Council, which publishes them online and makes them available to lawmakers through the official software.6Texas Redistricting. Public Participation Whether a citizen-drawn map has ever displaced one preferred by the majority party is a different question, but the infrastructure for public input is in place.