Texas's 16th congressional district of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

includes almost all of

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

and most of its suburbs in the state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The current Representative is

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Veronica Escobar Veronica Escobar (born September 15, 1969) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , based in El Paso, since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as an El Paso County commissioner from 2007 to 2011 and t ...

. The district was initially created in 1903. For most of the next six decades, it stretched across , from El Paso in the west to the Permian Basin ( Midland and

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

) in the east. However, after Texas' original 1960 district map was thrown out as a result of ''

Wesberry v. Sanders ''Wesberry v. Sanders'', 376 U.S. 1 (1964), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that districts in the United States House of Representatives must be approximately equal in population. Along with '' Baker v. Carr'' (1 ...

'', the 16th was shrunk down to the city of El Paso (except a sliver in the east) and most of its surrounding suburban

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...

. Since the 1990s, the 16th has been the only Democratic bastion in heavily Republican West Texas. While it has been a majority-Hispanic district since the 1970s, only two Hispanics have ever represented it,

Silvestre Reyes Silvestre "Silver" Reyes (born November 10, 1944) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for , serving from 1997 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligen ...

and Escobar.

Election results from presidential races

List of members representing the district

Recent elections

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

2022

Historical district boundaries

References

* *
Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
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