Texas’s primaries are happening on a legally disputed congressional map

Domingo García had been thinking of running for Congress again. The former Texas state representative and current director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), America’s oldest Latino civil rights group, hoped there would be a new majority-Latino district near Dallas where he could run competitively.

Texas grew so much over the past decade that the state earned two additional congressional seats following the 2020 Census. In Dallas, where García lives, the Latino population had swelled by half a million between 2010 and 2020.

Yet when the Republican-controlled legislature redrew the state’s congressional map to account for those population changes, the contorted shapes around the area resulted in no new majority-Latino district. Early voting is underway in the state’s midterm primary ahead of Election Day on March 1. García is not on the ballot.

“When the lines were drawn, the Latinos were basically packed and cracked,” García said, referring to strategies to manipulate voting blocs to gain political advantage.

More From The Washington Post (subscription required):