Texas's 25th congressional district

Texas's 25th congressional district
Texas's 25th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Current Representative		Roger Williams (R–Weatherford)
Cook PVI	R+10

Texas District 25 of the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that stretches from Fort Worth to Austin. The current Representative from District 25 is Roger Williams.

21st century redistrictings

For the 2004 elections, it had an elongated shape stretching from deep south Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border to Austin as a result of mid-decade 2003 gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts. The district's shape led Texas Democrats to nickname it "the fajita strip".

The district was redrawn again for the 2006 elections as the result of a lawsuit (see below).

In July 2011, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law a redistricting plan ("C185"), approved by the Texas legislature in June, which gave the 25th district a completely different geography for the 2012 elections, including part of Travis county, and stretching north as far as southern Tarrant County near Fort Worth. The redistricting split Travis County into five districts, and made it unrealistic for Doggett to be re-elected in any of them except the new 35th district (which by weight of population is more of a San Antonio district than an Austin district). There is a currently pending consolidated lawsuit against the proposed redistricting.^[1][2]

List of representatives

Representative	Party	Years	District home	Note
District created		January 3, 1983
Michael A. Andrews	Democratic	January 3, 1983 - January 3, 1995
Ken Bentsen, Jr.	Democratic	January 3, 1995 - January 3, 2003
Chris Bell	Democratic	January 3, 2003 - January 3, 2005
Lloyd Doggett	Democratic	January 3, 2005 - January 3, 2013		Redistricted from the 10th district, Redistricted to the 35th district
Roger Williams	Republican	January 3, 2013 – Present

Recent elections

2004 election results

US House election, 2004: Texas District 25
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Lloyd Doggett	108,309	67.6	+12.9
	Republican	Rebecca Klein	49,252	30.7	-12.4
	Libertarian	James Werner	2,656	1.7	+0.7
Majority			59,057	36.9
Turnout			160,217
	Democratic hold		Swing	+12.6

2006 election

On June 28, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the Texas legislature's 2003 redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act in the case of District 23. The main basis for the ruling was that the old 23rd was a protected majority-Hispanic district—in other words, if the 23rd was redrawn in a way to put Hispanics in a minority, a new majority-Hispanic district had to be created. Since the 25th was not compact enough to be an acceptable replacement, the 23rd had to be struck down. The size of the 23rd required the redrawing of nearly every district from El Paso to San Antonio.

As a result, on August 4, 2006, a three-judge panel announced replacement district boundaries for 2006 election for the 23rd district, as well as for the 15th, 21st, 25th and 28th districts. On election day in November, these five districts held open primaries; if any candidate received over 50%, they were elected. Otherwise, a runoff election in December decided the seat.^[3]

The redrawn 25th was more compact and restricted to Central Texas, comprising more of Travis County, most of Bastrop County, and all of Hays, Caldwell, Fayette, Gonzales, Lavaca, and Colorado Counties.

Incumbent congressman Doggett faced Republican Grant Rostig (formerly the Libertarian nominee), independent candidate Brian Parrett, and Libertarian Party Barbara Cunningham, and won re-election.

2008 election

In the 2008 election Doggett faced Republican George Morovich, a structural engineer from La Grange and Libertarian Jim Stutsman, a retired Army veteran. Doggett won with 65.8% of the vote to Morovich's 30.5% and Stutsman's 3.7%. Doggett won 73.8% of the vote in his Austin-based stronghold of Travis County.

2010 election

Dogget faced Republican and "Tea Party favorite" Donna Campbell, and again held his seat, though by a surprisingly small margin.^[4]

US House election, 2010: Texas District 25
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Lloyd Doggett	99,853	53	-14.6
	Republican	Donna Campbell	84,780	45	+14.3
	Libertarian	Jim Stutsman	4,424	2	+0.3
	Democratic hold		Swing	-14.5

2012 election

The new district boundaries were more favorable to Republicans, as had been foreseen.

US House election, 2012: Texas District 25
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Roger Williams	154,245	58.4	+13.4
	Democratic	Elaine Henderson	98,827	37.4	-15.5
	Libertarian	Betsy Dewey	10,860	4.1	+2.1
	Republican gain from Democratic		Swing	+13.4

2014 election

US House election, 2014: Texas District 25[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Roger Williams	107,120	60.21	+1.77
	Democratic	Marco Montoya	64,463	36.23	-1.21
	Libertarian	John Betz	6,300	3.54	-.57
Majority			42,657	23.98
Turnout			177,883	100	-32.6
	Republican hold		Swing	+1.77

References

1. "Riding the Pinwheel", Lee Nichols, The Austin Chronicle, August 26, 2011
2. Lawsuit charges racial bias in redistricting maps, Tim Eaton, Austin American-Statesman Sept. 5, 2011
3. Austin American-Statesman 4 August 2006
4. "Doggett Declares Victory", Austin Chronicle November 2, 2010.
5. Texas Office of the Secretary of State "2014 General Election"

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

Coordinates: 31°30′03″N 97°48′57″W / 31.50083°N 97.81583°W