Texas gained two new seats in Congress based on population growth fueled by people of color. But the Senate’s proposal provides no new majority-Black or majority-Hispanic districts to reflect that growth.

The U.S. Census Bureau has again pushed back the release of the 2020 census results — a delay that will almost certainly force Texas lawmakers into legislative overtime this summer to redraw the state’s political maps. Greg Abbott would need to call lawmakers back for a special legislative session in the summer. Texas would have expected to receive the second set of numbers as early as mid-February while lawmakers were in Austin for their regular legislative session. “My guess is you all will be back in a special session sometime this summer or early fall,” Potter said. The state Constitution says state House and Senate seats must be redrawn by the Legislature during the first regular legislative session after the census is published.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday planned to officially dissolve efforts to keep undocumented immigrants from being counted in the distribution of congressional districts. Texas lawmakers would ordinarily expect to receive detailed data from the census as soon as mid-February — marking an unofficial kickoff to the redrawing of political districts so they’re roughly equal in population. And it determines political power, with population figures tied to how many seats Texas gets in Congress, the state’s count of Electoral College votes, and how people are distributed into political districts. Texas should post huge population gains, with estimates showing it has grown by more than 3.8 million residents since 2010. The detailed census results used to redraw districts come in a second dataset that must be delivered to states by March 31.

When the Lone Star State defied polls and stayed solidly red on election night, dejected Texas Democrats saw the next 10 years flash before their eyes. Up for review this legislative session are 150 Texas House districts, 31 Texas Senate districts, and likely 38 or 39 U.S. House districts. Texas Republican Party Chair Allen West is already pushing for Republicans in charge to refrain from compromising with Democrats altogether. State Senate districts will have to assemble some 950,000 people per district, and state House districts will have nearly 200,000. Lasting impactsRedistricting was the tipping point in the 2002 Republican takeover of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years.