Texas is once again in its favorite kind of chaos: election chaos. The U.S. Supreme Court has slammed the brakes on a lower court ruling that said the state’s brand-new congressional map was probably racist—because of course the timing is inconvenient, and nothing gets SCOTUS moving faster than a deadline for candidate filings. For now, the shiny new map stays, at least until the justices decide whether Texas can keep using the one everyone’s fighting about or if we’re back to the 2021 version.
Enter Rep. Carl Tepper, Lubbock’s own straight-shooter, who brilliantly reassured everyone by announcing he has absolutely no idea what the racial makeup of the districts are. Never looked. Didn’t ask. Didn’t check. Just vibes and raw, uncut partisanship. He says the only goal was to make the seats “more Republican”—which, coincidentally, is exactly what racial gerrymandering usually achieves. But don’t worry, it’s not about race; it’s just about power. Totally different.
Tepper also pointed out that some of his colleagues abandoned their current political gigs to run for Congress based on these new lines, which means if the courts overturn the map, they might be temporarily out of careers. Truly, the real victims here are the aspiring career politicians who might have to sit out a cycle. Thoughts and prayers.
Meanwhile, Texas insists the mapmaker didn’t even have racial data “visible on his computer,” which is the redistricting equivalent of saying I can’t be speeding, officer, because my speedometer is broken. And with SCOTUS showing a track record of “eh, it’s too close to the election, just let it slide,” state leaders are feeling very optimistic.
All this because Donald Trump wanted five extra GOP seats to pad the party’s House majority. Texas obliged. The courts noticed. And now the whole country gets another episode of “Democracy, But Make It Messy.”
If the map ends up being illegal, but nobody checked racial data… does that make it better, or just more embarrassing?
