Texas Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump’s policies related to the U.S.-Mexico border, won’t seek reelection in 2022.
Vela’s move comes ahead of redistricting in Texas, which is expected to gain three seats due to a booming population growth over the past decade. State-level Republicans will have full control of the map-drawing process, with Texas’s House delegation likely to grow from 36 to 39 in the 435-member chamber. Republicans in Texas, with guidance from national party leaders, will aim to make all three new House seats favorable for the GOP, which could include targeting Democratic lawmakers by slicing and dicing their current districts.
Due to delayed data from the 2020 census, redistricting in states will be delayed by months, and lines may not be known until calendar year 2022, leaving a short window for candidates to declare where they’ll run.
“I will not be seeking reelection to the House of Representatives in 2022,” Vela said in a statement. “I will continue to focus on maintaining a Democratic House and Senate Majority in my capacity as a member of Congress and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, while working diligently for the people I am so grateful to represent.”
Vela, 58, has represented the 34th Congressional District since 2013. The sprawling district stretches from Corpus Christi south to Brownsville, with the lower portion abutting the Gulf of Mexico and the border.
And it’s been in immigration policy that Vela was the most critical when it comes to Trump. In June 2016, with Trump the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Vela wrote to the businessman, “Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.”
“While you would build more and bigger walls on the U.S.-Mexico border, I would tear the existing wall to pieces,” Vela wrote. “Why any modern-thinking person would ever believe that building a wall along the border of a neighboring country, which is both our ally and one of our largest trading partners, is frankly astounding and asinine.”
Vela is the third House member to announce they won’t seek reelection or run for another office, along with Ann Kirkpatrick, an Arizona Democrat, and GOP Rep. Tom Reed of New York.
In 2020, Vela’s House district backed President Biden over Trump 52% to 48%. However, that was a considerable improvement for Trump over his 2016 performance, part of Republicans’ surprise electoral gains in the Rio Grande Valley that year.
