On the north end of Corpus Christi, Texas, Craig Street is a new dividing line.
Diane Gudmanson and Carol Lowe live on one side. Matilda Rodriguez lives on the other. In January, they will have different representatives in Congress because Republicans redrew Congressional maps.
“We can’t even go and talk to our neighbors across the street and say, 'Let’s work together and talk to our representative together,' because we have different representatives in Congress,” Lowe said.
“I hate that map,” said Gudmanson.
In redrawing District 34, the strategy used “cracking,” a method that divides communities among districts to dilute their electoral influence.
In addition to carving out a section of Corpus Christi, which predominantly votes Democrat, the Republican-led Texas Legislature also split parts of the Rio Grande Valley into separate districts, leaving some farmers and ranchers with land and business interests in both.
“You're going to have people going in there pulling that damn lever, and they don't have any idea who's who they're voting for, or who's actually going to be representing them,” said rancher Mike England, who is from Mercedes, a town on the district line.
Brian Jones, a farmer who lives nearby, said even though the new district is anchored by urban centers Corpus Christi to the north and Brownsville in the south, there’s still a lot of ranching and farming that happens in between. He says whoever wins in the midterms will have to represent agricultural interests as well.
The redrawing was done on the political assumption that Latino voters, who voted for Donald Trump in record numbers in Texas in 2024, would vote Republican in 2026.
“It’ll backfire,” said Rodriguez.
