A big question looming over future redistricting: Who should count?
The impacts of the latest fight over Texas’ political maps are still reverberating around the state, but there are other debates on the horizon.
Future political representation could hinge on President Donald Trump’s renewed push to exclude at least some noncitizens from the population counts that help determine how political power is distributed in the U.S.
In Texas, where Republicans pushed through a rare midcycle redistricting this year to try to maintain their advantage in Congress after the 2026 midterm elections, experts say that excluding noncitizens when drawing districts could open another way for the GOP to tighten its grip on the state Legislature and congressional delegation.
In addition, many experts and critics worry it could ultimately place some Texas communities into larger, less cohesive districts, while diluting the political influence of Latinos and other minority groups who have accounted for much of the state’s population gain in recent decades. Adding questions about citizenship to the U.S. census could also lead to more undercounting of Latinos, they warn, a problem that has plagued previous censuses.
https://projects.votebeat.org/2025/redistricting-noncitizens-who-counts-census-citizenship-question-apportionment/