When José Cantú looked up his voter registration in early October, he was in for a surprise.
The 20-year-old University of Houston medical student hadn’t moved, but his home was no longer part of Texas’ 29th Congressional District, represented by Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia, whom he has known since childhood. Instead, he had been placed in District 9, and he didn’t recognize a single candidate on his ballot.
His friend Jessica Campos, 44, a mother of three, was also caught off guard. Despite following politics closely, she only recently learned who her candidates were.
A map redrawn mid-decade
Cantú and Campos are far from alone. In 2025, at the urging of President Donald Trump, the Texas Legislature redrew its congressional map in an effort to flip five Democratic-held seats in districts with Latino or Black majorities. The move set off a redistricting race that spread to roughly a dozen states, from California to Florida. California voters later approved a Democratic-friendly map to counter the Texas changes…