A court hearing to determine whether new congressional maps in Texas will be allowed for the March 2026 primary came to a close Friday. It’s now up to a three-judge panel to decide whether to accept the new maps or reject them and stay with the existing districts approved in 2021.

The judges are expected to issue the ruling within the next week. The outcome will likely be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The uncertainty over the new maps is having an impact here in North Texas. If the new maps stand, the number of Democratic districts will drop from three to two. The 32nd Congressional District seat, now held by Democrat Julie Johnson, will become a Republican majority district and extend to far East Texas.

Several Republicans have already filed to run, and one high-profile Republican considering a run is State Representative Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall, who discussed that with CBS News Texas recently.

“There has been a lot of pressure for me to run for Congress. I’m just truly humbled and just blessed to have so many people across the state,” Pierson said. “I’ve been very active here in the Republican party for 15 years, fighting alongside so many people for Conservative values, and so there is an effort to recruit me in this race. I am considering it. I’d be silly not to. I love the people here, and it is my home.”

Under the new maps, one of the remaining two Democratic seats is the 33rd Congressional District, now represented by Congressman Marc Veasey. The district moves from both Tarrant and Dallas counties to just Dallas County.

Several people are considering the 33rd, including Veasey and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose home is now in this district, not in the 30th Congressional district, which she represents.

Johnson has said she’ll run in this district because a large portion of her current district is in the new district. Past LULAC National President Domingo Garcia, who’s also a former state representative and Dallas City Councilmember, has formed an exploratory committee on a potential run because the district includes Oak Cliff and has a majority of Latinos.

Crockett or Veasey may decide to run in the new 30th Congressional District, which will have a majority of African Americans. It also has a larger portion of Tarrant County than before.

In a statement, Veasey said, “I absolutely intend on running for reelection. I’ve spent my career fighting for North Texas, and I’m not about to back down now.. I will be on the ballot, I’m in the fight, and I fully intend to win.”

While Crockett is focused on re-election, the University of Houston-Texas Southern University poll shows she leads a hypothetical Democratic primary for U.S. Senate with 31%, which is higher than former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Rep. James Talarico, or former Rep. Colin Allred.

In a recent interview with CBS News Texas, Crockett wouldn’t close the door on a potential Senate run but said it’s unlikely.

“No, I’m focused on the congressional race, but we’ll see. Right now, you have a Democratic primary that is heating up. Every time a poll comes out, somehow, I end up very near the top, if not the top. So again, I think that this is about what the people are asking for. We’ll see,” she said.

Crockett said that for her to decide to run for U.S. Senate, she would need to see proof that she could win.

“For me, it would look like there being a real chance that I would be best suited to win in the general election. If I were to see numbers that made it clear that I was best suited to engage people that historically do not engage in politics and I could somehow get them to the polls, whereas no one else could, then that would be a really big deal,” said Crockett.

Multiple plaintiffs, including LULAC, the NAACP and Democratic lawmakers, have said that Republicans illegally used race when drawing the new maps, which will hurt their ability to select candidates to represent them.

Texas Republicans and the state deny that, saying when they drew the maps that will likely give them five new districts, they only considered partisanship, which the courts have upheld.