Redistricting Has Taken Most Texas Congressional Districts Off The Board
Only a few congressional districts in Texas are holding runoffs today, but the list of those we care about is even shorter, because there simply aren’t very many competitive congressional districts in Texas anymore. Texas’s old congressional map had six districts that had a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean between D+5 and R+5, indicating they were highly competitive. But under the new map, only one district falls in that category.
That district, though, is the 15th, and it just so happens that’s one of the districts hosting a runoff today. On the Democratic side, Army veteran Ruben Ramirez will face off against activist and small-business owner Michelle Vallejo. (The district’s Democratic incumbent, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, is running for a different seat.)
The 15th District’s partisan lean almost exactly matches the nation as a whole, but given the Republican-leaning national environment, Democrats will need a strong candidate in order to hold onto the seat in November as the Republican running in this seat, Monica De La Cruz, has already earned Trump’s endorsement.