Below is the high-level recap included in the NY Times article "Texas Dems to flee state amid national redistricting battle"
The first major showdown in Texas over redistricting came in 2003 when Republicans in Washington, led by Representative Tom DeLay, the U.S. House majority leader, pushed for a mid-decade redistricting. At the time, Democrats still held a majority of the seats in the Texas congressional delegation, even though Republicans had begun to dominate in statewide races.
Texas Republicans, who had achieved majorities in both houses of the Legislature for the first time, introduced new maps intended to flip many of the Democratic-held seats.
The fight over the new maps was bruising. Democratic lawmakers left, first from the Texas House, to try to halt progress there. Then, in a special session, Democrats in the Texas Senate staged their own walkout and hid out in New Mexico for more than five weeks.
The effort ended when John Whitmire, then a state senator, returned to Austin. The new maps were adopted soon afterward, and Republicans succeeded in gaining a majority of the state’s seats in the U.S. House in the 2004 election, an advantage they have retained ever since.
Paywall free link to the entire article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/us/texas-democrats-walkout-redistricting-map-gop.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bU8.Edky.gm5S0XlF1m1f&smid=url-share
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