Looking to remain in power for at least another decade, Republicans revised legislative and congressional boundaries to protect their majorities in Austin and Washington.

While their maps could add a few seats in the legislature, the goal was to refrain from getting overly greedy by drawing boundaries that were closer to the status quo—which means the GOP is still in solid control of Texas politics.

But maintaining the status quo is the biggest problem with this year’s redistricting process, critics say. Legislative boundaries are revamped every decade, and new U.S. Census data is supposed to inform the decisions of map drawers. In Texas, minority residents made up 95% of the increased population growth over the past decade.

While people of color can and sometimes do vote for Republican candidates, the gerrymandered boundaries that will be in place for the 2022 midterm elections packed minority voters into districts already controlled by communities of color, and place others in small town areas, where their political impact is mitigated.

Democrats and voting rights activists will seek legal remedies to some aspects of the redistricting plan, particularly to Senate proposal that splits communities of color in the district represented by Tarrant County Democrat Beverly Powell.

For the most part, the new legislative lines are expected to survive court challenges, but aspects of the boundaries will be fought in court for many years.

Congressional and Texas House, Senate and State Board of Education maps are on their way to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.

Here are 3 redistricting takeaways as the special session comes to a close Tuesday.

Incumbency protection trumped overt greed

The GOP’s redistricting strategy was most prominent in North Texas, where Republican lawmakers developed a map that protected incumbents from suburban districts on the verge of being won by Democrats.

In protecting various seats, Republicans sacrificed a few GOP House members or districts to fortify others that were deemed more critical.

In Tarrant County, for instance, the district currently represented by Republican Jeff Cason was revised as a district that would heavily favor a Democrat, which now makes Cason unelectable. In sacrificing Cason, one of two Republicans who voted against Beaumont Republican Dade Phelan as speaker, the GOP bolstered the districts of at least five other Republicans.

A telling moment occurred when Cason tried to offer an amendment to restore his district to its original form, claiming that it was important to keep Hurst-Euless-Bedford in Northeast Tarrant County together.

“The process was rapid and a surprise to me,” Cason said during a House discussion of his amendment. “I just ask that you consider supporting this configuration of the map as it’s drawn, so that every member of the Tarrant delegation, both Democrat and Republican, would have an opportunity to return and serve the people of their districts.”

But state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, informed Cason that Democrats had spent most of the day urging Republicans to keep communities of interest together.

“We also heard lots of persons going back and forth as it relates to breaking up cities, as it relates to breaking up taxing entities, yet all of those things were okay earlier today... But when it comes to you, for some reason it seems to be problematic,” Crockett asked Cason.

“It would seem that way,” Cason replied.

Crockett then asked: “Does that seem a little inconsistent?”

Cason grunted “Yeah.”

Republicans also made small concessions to Democrats in order to protect vulnerable GOP House members. The districts of GOP representatives Matt Shaheen and Jeff Leach in Collin County were made more Republican. They had been in districts ready to tip to Democrats. In order to secure Shaheen and Leach, Republicans revised District 70 in Collin County to make it more Democratic. It’s currently represented by retiring Republican Scott Sanford of McKinney.

Hispanic residents get shafted—again

Over the past decade Texas had a population gain of 4 million people. Of the total, nearly half were Hispanic residents.

That growth wasn’t properly reflected in any of the maps. Of the two new congressional districts earmarked for Texas, map drawers placed one in the Austin area that’s favorable for a white Democrat and the other in the Houston area that will be likely won by a white Republican.

North Texas didn’t get a new district and remains one of the largest urban areas in the country without a Hispanic representative in Congress. The Hispanic population in North Texas is larger than the Hispanic populations in other areas of the state that do have Latinos in Congress.

Domingo Garcia, a former state representative from Dallas and national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said that solid Hispanic opportunity districts would decrease from eight to seven.

“The congressional maps are a travesty to justice and are political crimes against decency and fairness,” Garcia said.

He added that LULAC would challenge the maps in court. The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund filed suit Monday -- even before the maps have completed the legislative process.

Expect a long court battle

Texas redistricting laws are always followed by court battles. Democrats and voting rights activists plan to challenge the Republican-drawn maps in court. They feel one of their best opportunities for legal relief involves the new Senate map that carves up the District 10, now represented by Powell. The new plan moved minority voters from the existing district and places them in three surrounding areas, including Parker and Johnson counties. Others are packed into the nearby Senate District 23 represented by Dallas Democrat Royce West.

Critics say the plan disenfranchises the communities of color that have been influential in the district since it was represented by former State Sen. Wendy Davis.

The political dynamic in the district has been back-and-forth since 2008, when Davis first won the seat. After she left to run for governor in 2014, Republican Konni Burton took control. But four years later Powell beat Burton on the strength of the growing minority population in the district.

Demographic changes have resulted in the city of Mansfield electing Michael Evans, who is the city’s first Black mayor. The plan splits Mansfield, leaving communities of color with diminished voting strength.