Tony Gonzales

Texas Republicans' 2025 congressional map, redrawn at President Trump's urging to convert five Democratic-held districts into solidly Trump-leaning seats, appears to have backfired in early midterm returns. By late election night, Republicans had conceded three of the five target seats, and Democrats led in a fourth. Rep. Monica De La Cruz also lost her own seat in the 15th District, offsetting the GOP's one apparent gain elsewhere. Moderate Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez won reelection comfortably despite redrawn districts favoring Trump.

The results suggest Texas Republicans will enter the new Congress with no more than their prior 25 seats, undercutting the map's goal of padding the House GOP majority. Democrats have already secured control of the House and Senate.

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, sparked bipartisan backlash after posting on social media about Asian American students cheering at a University of Texas football game following a comeback win over Ohio State, calling them "foreigners" and saying they showed how "Americans have been displaced by foreigners." Two students identified in the photo, Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali, said they are U.S. citizens and called the post racist; Gupta said the incident showed racism "isn't looked down upon as much as it used to be." UT Austin enrollment data show international students make up less than 10% of the student body, with Asian students, mostly U.S. citizens or permanent residents, accounting for about 22.4% of enrollment. French has refused to delete the posts, denied regret when asked directly, and said "Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth," using the controversy for fundraising.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn condemned the posts as racist, warning that tolerating such intolerance is "how great political parties self-destruct," and Rep. Dan Crenshaw also criticized French. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and GOP representatives including Jared Patterson, Jeff Leach, Matt Shaheen, and Lacey Hull called on French to delete the posts, while former Speaker Dade Phelan called him "unfit for office." Gov. Greg Abbott said the message wasn't his but stopped short of directly condemning French, instead touting support for freezing H-1B visas at universities; he has since endorsed French, as has Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Attorney General Ken Paxton, facing a Senate primary challenge from Democrat James Talarico, deflected criticism onto Talarico rather than address French's remarks. French previously faced calls to resign as county chair over a poll on Jews versus Muslims.