'Inherently racist': Texas', Republican, redistricting map cuts Houston's Black Democrat representation in half

Texas Republicans, at the behest of President Donald Trump, redrew the state’s congressional map this summer to eliminate Houston’s largest Black district — the 9th, in south Houston — and pack many of its residents into the city’s other historically Black-led district, the 18th.

Race was at the center of the redistricting effort throughout. The Trump administration’s Justice Department set the process in motion when it sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott alleging that race was illegally used as a factor in the current congressional maps drawn just four years ago.