November 19, 2025

When Texas enacted its new congressional maps, I told you they were illegal. I promised my law firm would challenge them. I said that we had a strong case. I asked you to believe that we could win.

Yesterday, a federal court struck down Texas’s new gerrymandered map. Everyone was surprised — everyone except those who listened and believed me when I said it was possible.

I understand why so many were surprised and why so few had faith. After all, the legacy media and the usual pundit class told you it was over — that Donald Trump had pulled it off and there was nothing we could do to stop it.

So even as I wrote that “the fight for democracy in Texas isn’t over” and that we might “surprise the doubters and naysayers and prevail” in court, the “smart” news analysts scoffed and said I was just promoting my own cases.

They were tired of the Texas redistricting story. They wanted to move on to California. A defeat for the GOP in Texas would undermine their narrative that Republicans are winning the mid-cycle redistricting battles.

There is another reason legacy media stopped covering the story: it was expensive. The legal challenge to the Texas map took place in a courtroom in El Paso — not Houston or Dallas. It lasted 10 days, and the testimony was highly technical and not always engaging. 

A few major news outlets showed up for the first day, but that number quickly dwindled. A tumbleweed rolled through the press box. By the time the hearing wrapped up, only Democracy Docket and a handful of local outlets remained. The big legacy media players were nowhere to be found.

To be clear, covering a 10-day hearing in person in El Paso was a major expense for Democracy Docket. But it was worth it. In fact, it is exactly why I founded Democracy Docket in the first place.

In 2020, I realized that legacy media was not living up to the challenge of providing pro-democracy news, information and analysis about voting rights and elections in court. Since then, it has gotten worse — much worse.

As we have watched one corporate news company after another bend the knee to Donald Trump, Democracy Docket has stood tall. While far too many journalists have tacitly decided to obey in advance, Democracy Docket’s coverage has remained uncompromising. 

And it will remain that way throughout this fight for democracy and beyond. In Texas, I am proud to say that we won the battle. But the war isn’t over. 

The Texas gerrymandering case will head to the Supreme Court. And the same naysayers who predicted we would lose before now predict a defeat before the high court.

I make no promises. The legal work my law firm does is high-stakes and in the public eye. We are used to confounding skeptics and defying the odds, but we are also realistic enough to know that winning voting and election cases is not easy — and the current Supreme Court is a difficult arena.

Shortly after the new map was enacted in Texas, I wrote to you:

“Don’t give up on the fight. Don’t let cynics win by stripping away your hope or your belief that the courts can protect our democracy and the rule of law. We may yet surprise the doubters and naysayers and prevail. And if we don’t, at least we will know that when the stakes were high, we did everything we could.”

I wish I could predict the future. I wish I could assure you that we will win this case — and the many others we are fighting across the country. Mostly, I wish I could confidently say that democracy will survive this era intact. I can’t offer any of those assurances.

What I can promise is this: My legal team will do everything they can in court. And, equally important, I pledge that Democracy Docket will remain the leading digital news platform dedicated to providing information, analysis, and commentary on voting rights and elections in the courts.

For those of you who have supported this work, thank you. For those who have not yet done so, know that Democracy Docket has no corporate backers or billionaire investors. It relies entirely on its readers and members to do its work and power its growth.

Thanks to our supporters, we went to Texas. And thanks to our supporters, we will continue to answer democracy’s bat signal and go where we are needed most. We welcome you to join our team of heroes fighting for democracy.