Texan Algenita Davis isn’t just talking about the candidates as she heads into the March 3 primaries. She’s also talking about voting maps.
From her home near the Old Spanish Trail and Cullen Boulevard in the Third Ward of Houston, she describes congressional lines that curve and stretch north and south across the city and into suburbs. Redistricting, she says, isn’t some abstract exercise in cartography. It’s political maneuvering that too often prizes partisan power over vulnerable communities.
“When you redraw lines for a party instead of for people, that’s the downfall of democracy,” Davis, 75, told Capital B.
Her voice sharpens when she talks about the 18th Congressional District, where she lives, and the neighboring 9th Congressional District. In 2025, Texas Republicans pushed through a map that drastically reshaped both districts, “packing” Black and brown voters into the former and “cracking,” or diluting, the voting strength of these groups in the latter.
Redistricting battles — tied to long memories of hard-won voting rights — are among the many issues influencing how Black Texans approach this year’s primaries, which include U.S. House and Senate races. Alongside concerns over whether their political power is being scaled back, voters are thinking deeply about health care, reproductive rights, and political seniority.
Texas’ primaries arrive at a pivotal moment for the state and for national politics. On the ballot are a closely watched race for the 18th Congressional District as well as a high-profile contest for the Senate, which could yield the state’s first Black member of Congress’ upper chamber.
Congressional District 18, a seat that was once held by the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, sits at the center of a debate over not only redistricting but also generational change. For some, the contest presents an opportunity to send a new voice to Washington.
U.S. Reps. Al Green and Christian Menefee of Texas and Gretchen Brown, an employee at the U.S. Department of Defense, are vying for the Democratic nomination, with Green and Menefee leading in media attention. Elizabeth Vences, an accountant, and Ronald Whitfield, who also ran unsuccessfully in the district’s special general election last November, are competing for the Republican nomination.
The Senate contest carries its own significance. It’s exposed major questions about strategy on the Democratic side, which features a showdown between U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Texas state Rep. James Talarico. Crockett, known for her cutting exchanges on Capitol Hill, has framed the race around holding Republicans to account and defending federal protections. Talarico, a pastor, has embraced a different approach, emphasizing coalition-building.
Whoever wins on Tuesday — Crockett or Talarico — will compete with the winner of a Republican primary between U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Tuesday’s contests won’t immediately alter the balance of power in Texas. But for many Black Texans, the stakes feel personal. In a state where district lines are in flux, the primaries are less about party labels than about delivering tangible gains and defending ground.
What residents are saying
For Angela King, 58, the fight includes a 5 a.m. alarm.
During election season, the Harris County poll worker rises around dawn to help to open her polling location, checking in voters, explaining paperwork, and making sure that each ballot is properly secured. Where Davis worries about districts being redrawn to dilute influence, King focuses on what happens after the lines are set: whether every eligible voter can cast a ballot without confusion or intimidation.
“I want to make sure that I can show up and say that I did my part,” King told Capital B, adding that she wants people to “know that their votes count, and that they matter.”
Her concerns have only intensified in recent weeks. President Donald Trump is pressing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. The measure would tighten voter ID requirements and limit no-excuse mail-in voting — changes that could create barriers to the ballot box that critics say could disproportionately impact Black voters who are already less likely to have certain kinds of identification.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the U.S. Postal Service is protected from lawsuits, even when mail is deliberately not sent — a decision that critics say could erode accountability in a system that handles mail-in ballots.
Together, those developments have heightened concerns over election access and trust in democratic processes — issues that King is thinking about as she heads into March 3.
But her concerns extend further. She’s also worried about the future of reproductive rights in Texas.
“I believe that a woman’s body is a woman’s body — it’s her decision,” King said, noting that abortion access “isn’t something that the government should control.”
For King, reproductive rights sit with voting access as key questions of autonomy, personal authority, and control. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Texas has enforced one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, outlawing almost all abortions except in some medical emergencies and making miscarriages more dangerous. Lawmakers have also restricted access to abortion medication.
King’s concerns about bodily autonomy are tied to her belief that health care itself should be more widely accessible. King says that she feels fortunate to have a job that provides health insurance, but she worries about those who don’t. She supports expanding Medicaid and ensuring that more Texans have coverage.
Reproductive rights are a driving concern for some younger voters, too. Shea Jordan Smith, 31, grew up in Houston — in what was originally Texas’s 9th Congressional District, now part of the new 18th Congressional District — and says that the state’s restrictive laws have energized voters to pay closer attention to elections.
“From reproductive rights being stripped away, to redistricting, to other political fractures, people are really starting to see what’s at stake,” Smith, a political strategist who once worked for Jackson Lee, told Capital B.
He also points to generational change as a focal point. Though he has always respected established leaders, observing gaps in representation after the deaths of lawmakers has made him think more deeply about the importance of electing fresher voices who can go the distance and ensure that vulnerable communities always have an advocate in Congress.
“This might sound bad, but it’s like that saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” Smith said, reflecting on moments when leadership transitions left constituents without representation for months.
Smith loves to fuse politics and pop culture, what he calls “threading the line between Congress and The Real Housewives.” He emphasizes that understanding voters’ everyday realities — their community spaces, their interests — is crucial to connecting local awareness to wider electoral trends, including higher turnout among Black and brown voters.
What the candidates are saying
In the contest for the 18th Congressional District, candidates are staking out dueling visions with regard to experience and accountability. Green, 78, and his allies maintain that his decadeslong tenure in Congress is an asset, saying that seasoned leadership is vital to delivering for constituents and protecting programs such as Medicaid.
Menefee, the 37-year-old challenger, has avoided focusing on age, saying instead that he’s the only one who has “stood up to the Trump administration.” His supporters, however, argue that younger leaders can provide a more constant presence for the district and that they would, as a result, be better positioned to respond to everyday concerns.
On the Republican side, Vences has emphasized fiscal conservatism and housing development, while little is known about Whitfield, though he reportedly calls himself the Last Prophet. Neither has gained much in the way of statewide media attention.
In the Senate race, Crockett has made defending federal protections and confronting Republican leadership signature themes of her campaign. She has leaned into her background as a civil rights attorney and her experience on Capitol Hill, casting herself as a no-nonsense fighter for reproductive rights and voting access, among other issues.
In late February, the rapper Cardi B publicly backed Crockett, urging voters to choose “someone who is going to fight for your community” — language that closely echoes Crockett’s emphasis on advocacy.
Talarico, meanwhile, is pitching a somewhat different message, built in part on his faith and a call for a less divisive politics. At campaign rallies, he has said, “We will not defeat the politics of division with more division,” arguing for a politics rooted in compassion and expansive coalitions.
In the Republican contest, Hunt has emphasized border security and harmony with Trump’s agenda. Cornyn is leaning on his Senate tenure and national profile, while Paxton is painting himself as a family man animated by conservative values.
Capital B has reached out to the candidates for comment on their campaigns. The Cornyn team could not be reached for comment.
For Davis, the question isn’t simply which candidate wins, or whether one generation replaces another. It’s whether the people most affected by an array of issues will have champions in Congress.
“You want to make sure that you put people in office who are going to make the most difference — who are going to fight,” Davis said.
The post Black Texans Head to the Primaries With More Than Just Ballots on the Line appeared first on Capital B News.
