This summer, Texas lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional map, adding new districts and reshaping old ones. The official story was that the maps were fair, legal, and “race-blind.” But in public hearings across the state and later in a Texas courtroom, a different story unfolded.

Hundreds of Texans showed up to testify against the redistricting plan. Many had driven hours to speak, waiting late into the night for their turn. They asked simple questions that never got real answers. Why were they told to register “on” the bill instead of for or against it? How could there be public hearings about new maps when no one had seen the maps? Why was the process so rushed? And who was actually drawing them?

A few Republicans supported the process, and a handful objected to how it was handled, but the vast majority of testimony came from Texans who opposed the new maps. They saw communities split apart, long-standing neighborhoods divided, and districts that stretched hundreds of miles with little in common except political value to those in power.

During one of the final hearings, Rep. Todd Hunter, who chaired the House redistricting committee, said it was legal to gerrymander based on politics. But in Texas, the Black community overwhelmingly votes Democratic, so political gerrymandering inevitably becomes racial gerrymandering in practice.

When the case reached court, much of what Texans had suspected was confirmed. Testimony revealed that the maps were drawn by Adam Kincaid, the executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, a Washington-based organization overseeing GOP redistricting efforts nationwide. Kincaid testified that he was paid by the Republican National Committee and took instructions from the White House and members of the Texas Republican congressional delegation, not from Texas legislators or voters. Jen Rice, reporting for Democracy Docket explained that the mapmaker testified that public testimony was never considered in drawing the maps. That revelation confirmed what many Texans already suspected – the public process was little more than a formality.

Rice noted that Texas could not have it both ways. State officials had spent years defending the 2021 maps as race-blind, yet in 2025 they justified redrawing them because of a federal letter that said race had been used to create those same districts.

Democracy Docket covered what happened in the courtroom. In our Wake Up Texas series, Drawn to Win, we show you what happened outside of it. Each video connects the evidence presented in court with the moments that played out in real time during the redistricting hearings. These videos tell the story of how the lines of political power in Texas were drawn, who made the decisions, and what the process revealed about how representation really works in our state.