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U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett announced Friday that he will not seek reelection after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas’s 2025 redistricting map. “I will continue working with the same urgency and determination as if next year were my last, which in public office it will be,” Doggett said in a statement, KXAN reported.
“After that, I will seek new ways to join my neighbors in making a difference in the only town I have ever called home,” he added.
Doggett’s current district covers large parts of West Austin, stretching from Avery Ranch to Westlake Hills and south to Manchaca.
Under the new map, part of the district, including Westlake Hills, will fall into the same congressional district as College Station and Livingston.
“No one expected next year’s election to begin this year with ordered redistricting,” Doggett said. “It’s very disappointing. It’s disappointing, not just for me or for Central Texas, but for our country.”
Doggett was first elected to Congress in 1995. He has served on the House Budget Committee and on joint Ways and Means subcommittees focused on healthcare and tax policy.
“I am so appreciative of my neighbors for giving me that opportunity,” he said. “I do have another full year. My office will be fully open and available to help people as we have in the past.”
Doggett is an Austin native who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.
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Texas Democrat Lloyd Dogget just realized he can’t win with a fair election map. He’s out… pic.twitter.com/AB7i7lm9I0
— Matterhorn Academy UCDA (@MatterhornAcad1) December 6, 2025
He served in the Texas Senate and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court before running for Congress. “I’ll be here in the only town I’ve ever called home to be engaged here,” Doggett said.
The Supreme Court ruling followed a decision last month by a three-judge federal panel in El Paso that blocked the map for the 2026 midterms after finding it was racially gerrymandered.
“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” the lower court ruling stated. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which granted the state’s request to use the map in 2026.
Paxton said the map is designed to help Republicans pick up five additional House seats.
“In the face of Democrats’ attempt to abuse the judicial system to steal the U.S. House, I have defended Texas’s fundamental right to draw a map that ensures we are represented by Republicans,” Paxton said.
“The Big Beautiful Map will be in effect for 2026.”
Doggett previously said he would run for reelection in Congressional District 37 if the map were struck down. He said that if the map remained in place, he would step aside to allow U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, who currently represents District 35, to run for the seat.
“I think that’s a district that can be very competitive,” Doggett said. “I’m going to back the Democratic nominee, and I assume that will be Congressman Casar.”
