At midnight in the Texas Capitol, Sen. Carol Alvarado prepared to filibuster H.B. 4, a Trump-endorsed redistricting plan designed to add five Republican U.S. House seats. Republicans controlled the state Senate, scheduled procedural breaks, and held the votes needed to advance the maps. Democrats lacked the numbers to stop passage but sought to spotlight perceived abuses, including packing Black voters in Houston and cutting Representative Al Green from his district. Alvarado arrived ready to speak for hours, carrying constituent letters and supplies, with the explicit aim of drawing national attention and pressuring others with greater power to intervene.
It was midnight in the Texas Capitol, and everyone was waiting for Democratic Sen. Carol Alvarado. They wanted to know if she'd filibuster H.B. 4, the Donald Trump-pushed gerrymandering legislation that aims to gain five more Republican seats in the U.S. Congress. The state Senate had just reconvened after a three-hour dinner break called by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Alvarado, who'd filibustered for over 15 hours in opposition to a voter-suppression bill in 2021, was armed with comfortable sneakers,
Texas Democrats lacked the votes to stop Republicans from passing the new maps, and Republicans would stop at nothing to heed Trump's demand that they help him tip the 2026 midterms in the president's favor. But state Democrats were determined not just to go down swinging but to bring as much attention as they could to the issue-in the hopes that elsewhere, people with more power would take up the cause.
By the time Alvarado was set to start, it had already been a long day. For hours, the Democrats had paced the green carpets of the Senate chambers, questioning Republican Phil King, the chair of the body's redistricting committee. Did he know that U.S. Rep Al Green, a vocal Trump critic, would be cut out of his district? Why was he stacking Black votes in Houston into one district?
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