Austin Democrat Greg Casar announced Monday he will run for a redrawn seat in Congress if the state’s new district map holds up in court.
In a post on X announcing his campaign for District 37, Casar said he’s running to “take on Trump, his billionaire buddies, and their puppet politicians."
“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott don’t want a guy like me in Congress, because I didn’t start my career in courtrooms or in the C-suite,” Casar said. “I started it here, on Austin construction sites, as a labor organizer fighting alongside workers to win a raise, a union and the right to a water break.”
If upheld, the Texas Legislature's new congressional map would eliminate one of the only two solidly blue seats in the Austin area.
Casar has represented District 35 in the U.S. House — which includes parts of Austin, Hays County and San Antonio — since 2023. Under the new map, District 35 retains only 10% of his current constituents. The newly drawn District 37, however, includes 250,000 of Casar’s constituents, according to his office.
The map could have set up a showdown between Casar and Congressman Lloyd Doggett. But Doggett, who has been a member of the House since 1994, announced Thursday he won’t run for reelection if the map holds.
In a statement, Doggett said he would “prefer to devote the coming months to fighting Trump tyranny and serving Austin rather than waging a struggle with fellow Democrats."
The map, approved by the Texas Senate early Saturday, was designed to create five new GOP seats in the House before the midterm elections. The map is already the subject of a lawsuit that claims the redrawn districts are racially discriminatory.
