About the 2025 Texas redistricting

In the summer of 2025, the Texas legislature undertook a special session to redraw the map of Texas’s US Congressional districts. You can read a summary of this action on the Wikipedia page.

The result was intended to ensure through gerrymandering that the national Republican party would gain five additional seats in the US House of Representatives through cracking and packing map-drawing techniques. This is not a conspiracy theory, nor even a controversial opinion; it was the stated goal of the Governor of Texas, at the direction of the President of the United States.

As a result, many Democratic-favored districts were subsumed into large geographical areas with Republican-voting majorities when the new maps were passed by the Texas legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott.

North Austin (TX-37) affected

North Austin was mostly in TX-37, which covered north and west Austin. It is now gerrymandered into three rural Texas districts, as illustrated below. TX11.us is primarily concerned with the newly formed TX-11, though we share concerns with our close neighbors who now find themselves in TX-37 and TX-10.

District 11 (was District 37)

TX-37 to TX-11, with Rattan Creek Park as reference

Rattan Creek Park is noted as a reference, in the extreme southeastern corner. TX-11 now stretches from Pecan Street in Pflugerville to far west Texas, beyond Midland and Odessa.

District 10 (was District 37)

TX-37 to TX-10, with Yett Creek Neighborhood Park as reference

Yett Creek Neightborhood Park near Riata Vista is noted as a reference, on the western side. The new TX-10 stretches mostly eastward through College Station and to Corrigan.

District 17 (was District 37)

TX-37 to TX-17, with T&C Sports-Soccer Fields as reference

T&C Sports-Soccer Fields in Leander is noted as a reference, in the southwestern corner. The new TX-17 district stretches north and west to beyond Wortham.

Map scales

While it’s difficult to intuitively see the sheer sizes of TX-11, TX-10, and TX-37, know that a typical bike ride from T&C Soccer to Yett Creek, stopping in between at Rattan Creek, typically would take about a half an hour. This bike ride would touch all three districts mentioned here.

A bike ride from Rattan Creek to downtown Odessa would take significant planning and a road time of about 33 hours (or about five and a half hours by car).

image sources: Texas Tribune interactive redistricting lookup.