Redrawing Power in Tarrant County: Representation at Stake for Latino Communities

By Jennifer C

Redrawing Power in Tarrant County: Representation at Stake for Latino Communities

Tarrant County is in the middle of the political tug-of-war in Texas: It is becoming more diverse, more competitive, and it is contested by rules as much as votes. Donald Trump won the county with 51.82% of the votes in the presidential election in November 2024, and Kamala Harris had 46.70% (Tarrant County Elections Administration, 2024). The margin is an indicator of a shifting county, no longer safely countable by either party in the future. The Senate race in the U.S. was also tight, with Ted Cruz earning 48.68 percent and Colin Allred earning 48.91 percent (Tarrant County Elections Administration, 2024).

County government has become the next frontline because of that closeness. In April 2025, the Republican Commissioners Court majority of Tarrant County voted to embark on mid-decade redistricting, which is not supposed to happen post-census, after the County Judge, Tim O'Hare, put the matter on the agenda (Suarez, 2025). Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. said the attempt would water down the voting power of the majority-minority precincts and demanded more visibility in the manner in which the boundaries would be proposed and discussed (Suarez, 2025).

In June 2025, the court passed "Map 7" by again voting 3-2 to further intensify the dispute. According to CBS Texas, two new maps were uploaded only days before the final vote, which did not give them time to be reviewed by people (Jenkins, 2025). The plan changed the two Republican-majority and two Democratic-majority precincts to three Republican-majority precincts and one Democratic-majority precinct (Jenkins, 2025). It also minimized two-to-one majority-minority precincts (Jenkins, 2025). In October 2025, the U.S. Fifth Circuit affirmed the map, and the challengers had not presented evidence that it had racial intent (Jenkins, 2025).

The local struggle is a part of a broader trend in Texas. An analysis by the Texas Tribune cautioned that redrawing lines would leave one of the fastest-diversifying Tarrant Counties with a whiter and more Republican congressional representation, although demographic change is moving the county toward swing status (Klibanoff & Astudillo, 2025). To the Latino residents, particularly those of Arlington and neighborhoods in Fort Worth, representation on Commissioners Court forms the budget priorities, language access in public services, transport planning, and investment in health and public safety.

Map 7 has been more than a partisan chess move by Latino civic groups. According to the League of Women Voters and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Fort Worth, the plan concentrates voters of color in one precinct and removes one of two existing majority-minority precincts (League of Women Voters, 2025). Their argument also states that it effectively disenfranchised almost 100,000 voting-age residents when they were transferred to precincts where their commissioner could not face re-election until 2028 (League of Women Voters, 2025).

Following Trump's 2024 re-election to the White House and a resurgence of political interest in immigration and electoral regulations, the redistricting struggle in Tarrant County indicates the potential of a power-centered local government despite the highly divided electorate. In the case of Latino communities, the fundamental question is not whether a person is elected, but whether representation is able to keep up with the changing reality of the county (Klibanoff & Astudillo, 2025; Tarrant County Elections Administration, 2024).

References

Jenkins, D. (2025, October 15). Federal appeals court upholds Tarrant County’s new voting map as legal challenge continues. CBS News Texas. https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/appeals-court-upholds-tarrant-county-gop-drawn-redistricting-map/

Klibanoff, E., & Astudillo, C. (2025, September 2). In rapidly diversifying Tarrant County, a summer of GOP redistricting hits Black and Latino representation. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/02/texas-redistricting-map-tarrant-county-congress-commissioners-court/

League of Women Voters. (2025, November 28). League of United Latin American Citizens of Fort Worth, Council 4568 v. Tarrant County. https://www.lwv.org/legal-center/league-united-latin-american-citizens-fort-worth-council-4568-v-tarrant-county

Suarez, M. (2025, April 2). Tarrant County Republican commissioners start redistricting process over Democrats’ protests. KERA News. https://www.keranews.org/government/2025-04-02/tarrant-county-commissioners-court-redistricting

Tarrant County Elections Administration. (2024). General election, November 5, 2024: Cumulative report (final official results). https://www.tarrantcountytx.gov/en/elections/past-election-information/2024-archives/november-5--2024--general-election-results.html