2003 Texas Redistricting - Criticism of The Plan

Criticism of The Plan

Democrats criticized the 2003 redistricting, citing the lack of precedent for redistricting twice in a decade, and argued that it was being done for purely political gain and resulted in gerrymandering. Public comments by some Republicans lent support to this claim, since many discussed their expectations of picking up several Republican seats. Some minority groups argued the plan was unconstitutional, as it would dilute their influence and possibly violate the "one-person-one-vote" principle of redistricting. Republicans argued that, since most voters in the state were Republicans, it was appropriate that the party have a majority in the federal legislative delegation.

The 2004 elections under the new redistricting resulted in Texas Republicans gaining a majority of House seats by a 21–11 margin, a 2/1 ratio in terms of seats. This was larger than the 61/38 voting ratio of Republican to Democratic voting in the Presidential race. It was more lopsided that the total results in the 32 House races, which resulted in 56/40/3 for Republican to Democratic voting (the two main parties did not run in four districts).