Eric Holder Statement on Federal Court Blocking Texas’s Mid-Decade Gerrymander for the 2026 Midterm Elections

For Immediate Release
November 18, 2025
Contact
Madia Coleman
comms@redistrictingfoundation.org

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a decision in LULAC v. Abbott to block Texas’s 2025 congressional gerrymander from use in the 2026 midterms. The Court held a ten-day hearing pertaining to this matter in October of this year. 

“This is a major victory for Texans, particularly Texans of color, and it marks another critical step in the fight against mid-decade gerrymanders enacted at the direction of the White House,” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. “Thanks to the bravery and determination of the voters fighting for fair representation in this case, Texas won’t have a double-gerrymandered congressional map. This victory should also serve as a warning to anti-democracy politicians who have already enacted mid-decade gerrymanders in Missouri and North Carolina and who aim to do the same in Indiana, Florida and elsewhere. The pursuit of illegal and immoral gerrymanders will not go unchallenged, and the American people will continue to fight for equal representation and their fundamental right to vote.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

Following the 2020 Census, Texas was the only state to gain two congressional seats due to significant population growth. The census data also showed that 95% of the state’s population growth came from communities of color. Despite this, in 2021, the state of Texas enacted a congressional map that reduced the number of districts where voters of color have a fair chance to elect candidates of their choice and increased the number of majority-white districts. Immediately after the congressional map was enacted, the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed Voto Latino v. Scott, now renamed Gonzales v. Nelson and consolidated under LULAC v. Abbott, challenging Texas’s 2021-enacted congressional map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

Just two months after the trial in the case against the 2021-enacted map, at the request of President Trump, Governor Greg Abbott called for an August special session in the Texas Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map. Coming out of the 2025 special legislative session, the State of Texas enacted a new congressional gerrymander that goes even further to diminish the voting power of communities of color. 

As enactment of the new gerrymander was imminent in August 2025, the NRF initiated a legal challenge in federal court against the newly enacted congressional gerrymander, asking the court to strike down the new map on several grounds, as well as a motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, asking the court to block the enactment of the new gerrymandered congressional map. The Court held a ten-day hearing pertaining to this matter in October 2025. The Court’s decision to grant the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction has blocked Texas from using the new gerrymander in the 2026 midterms. To learn more about the NRF’s work, click here. 

###