At least two Montgomery County residents will be vying for the House District 3 (HD3) seat, after federal courts reach a final ruling over the redistricting maps.

Current Magnolia Independent School District Board President Cecil Bell Jr., and Montgomery County Hospital District Board Member Bob Bagley have filed campaign finance reports to run for HD3, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

Montgomery County was previously split between HD15, 16 and 18. District 18 moved further north with the new proposed maps. Dist. 15  State Rep. Rob Eissler represented Magnolia and The Woodlands. With the new redistricting maps HD15 will now cut off at FM 2978 toward the east due to the increased population growth in Montgomery County.

HD3 will encompass all of Waller County, southwest Montgomery County from FM 2978 to Waller County, SH 105 to the Harris County line, a small portion of west Montgomery County, the east side of the San Jacinto River to FM 1485 and Hwy. 59 to SH 105 and Loop 336.

Bell said the district was oddly shaped, but redistricting maps were drawn in a way that would split Montgomery County into appropriate sized districts. Montgomery County has had large population growth and now has about 455,000 residents, he said. Each district is allowed to have about 167,000 people.

Bell said in order to create HD3, redistricting committees looked at surroundings areas to see where it could connect HD3. He said Waller County had similar voting trends and demographics making it a good connection to HD3.

Several lawsuits were filed over the redistricting maps because of a perceived lack of minority representation, allegedly giving Republicans more representation in Texas.

The federal court system has recently said they will have a decision made by the candidate filing period which has been moved to Nov. 28. through Dec. 15.. The primaries will still be in March; however, campaigning time will be shorter.

All state legislative districts have been established, but are awaiting the court ruling before implementation. Bell said the courts will look to see if any districts need to be changed or tweaked. However, he doubts that HD3 will change, because Montgomery County and surrounding areas have strong conservative and Republican voting trends. He explained that the courts will see that there is no intentional misrepresentation of other parties in the area.

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