GOP Remap Chair Claims to Be Oblivious
as Other Republicans Keep Lips Sealed
Capitol Inside
July 26, 2025
The first three hours of a Texas House committee hearing in Houston unfolded like a filibuster at a pep rally for Democrats on Saturday when the special panel's GOP chairman insisted that he had no idea what the purpose of a redistricting push in special session or the rationale behind it might be.
The weekend meeting on the University of Houston campus got under way when a half-dozen House Democrats took turns grilling the leader of the Select Congressional Redistricting Committee for more than an hour on the logic and motivation for redrawing the U.S. House map here six years ahead of schedule.
While 11 Republican colleagues watched in silence, GOP State Rep. Cody Vasut of Angleton said in the face of questions from Democratic State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston that he knew nothing about the intent of the effort beyond what he read in Governor Greg Abbott's proclamation on the summer session call.
Vasut acknowledged that he hadn't asked the governor for clarity on the reasoning behind the midstream remap push. Vasut admitted that he hadn't attempted to speak with a U.S. Department of Justice official whose letter to Abbott on coalition districts gave him the opening he needed to put redistricting on the summer agenda.
Vasut indicated when pressed by Democratic State Rep. Armando Walle of Houston that he didn't know that that people who are Black, Hispanic and Asian accounted for most of the population growth in Houston and the state as a whole. But Vasut said he was a big fan of diversity and viewed it as an asset. The remap panel chairman declined to mention, however, that he'd voted with fellow Republicans to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion policies widely known as DEI in recent years.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas emerged as the hearing's biggest star in the eyes of an audience that erupted in cheering and applause frequently despite Vasut's repeated warnings against such displays and threats of taking action if the ovations continued. Crockett was a member of a witness panel that featured a pair of Houston Democrats in U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher and Sylvia Garcia and consumed more than an hour while answering questions from the Democratic representatives on the select committee.
While Vasut feigned ignorance on the reasoning behind the special session map redesign, he had no help from the panel's other Republicans who've said nothing at two House hearings to try to justify the effort or to defend themselves against accusations that they're being played by President Donald Trump.
The self-imposed gag order could be in place simply because the Republicans in the Legislature would find it impossible to say anything about the effort that's positive and are afraid that anything they say could be held against them by the president. Or they could be keeping their powder dry for a hearing on an actual map that's been proposed as a calculated strategy ploy.
Vasut and the special committee's Republicans have been mum on testimony on how GOP leaders and lawmakers swore under oath that race had not been considered in the drawing of the current U.S. House map that culminated in 25 seats for the Texas majority party in the 2024 election. Trump expects the GOP to have 30 congressional seats in Texas for the midterm election in 2026 when the U.S. House majority is up for grabs.
The Republicans can't justify the remap push on population data or election results in a state where the GOP's candidates claimed 58.4 percent of the vote in 2024. The Republicans would only be entitled to 22 U.S. House seats in Texas based on the share of the vote they received here last year.
Vasut denied that the Republicans have been developing a revised U.S. House map in private while pretending to take public testimony into account.
The select committee hearing process will have been good for nothing but show if the Republicans approve a map with more red districts despite overwhelming opposition at the public hearings to remap plans that diluted the minority vote here more than they already have. The hearings in the special session's first week will have been a sham in such an event.
more to come ...
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