Redistricting swipes Paul

One nice thing about running for president from the House is that when things go wrong, you can usually return to a forgiving, uncompetitive, carefully gerrymandered seat in Congress.

Redistricting might make that tougher for Ron Paul this time around, according to the Texas Tribune:

Advertisement Tea Party godfather Ron Paul, a 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential hopeful, would see his congressional district transformed in a new GOP map proposed Thursday night by Senate Redistricting Commitee Chair Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo. District 14 would pick up about 300,000 new voters, including all of Jefferson County — where the city of Beaumont is located — and a bigger slice of Galveston County. The percentage of his voting-age constituents who are Anglo would drop from 61 percent in his current district to 57 percent in his new one, while the percentage of African Americans and Hispanics would increase from 35 percent to 39 percent. Democratic operative Jeff Crosby believes the change is intended to target Paul, who has drawn a cult-like following among conservative activists but is not such a darling in the Texas Republican political establishment. While other congressmen have beaten a path to the Texas Capitol to give their two-cents (and more) about what their districts should look like, Paul has not been lobbying lawmakers.

The Texas map is far from final. And Paul's not alone in this predicament: Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter might run for president in part because he's losing his district. On the Democratic side, Dennis Kucinich is pondering a run for Congress in Washington state because he might lose his district in Ohio.

This article tagged under: Ron Paul

2012 Elections