The same plaintiffs who are challenging the state’s 2021 congressional map are asking a panel of three federal judges to block using the new GOP-approved districts from being used in the March midterms. The Texas Tribune reported this is the first legal test for the redrawn districts, which are intended to increase the Texas congressional seats held by Republicans by five. The hearing began Wednesday in El Paso and is expected to last nine days. Voting rights lawsuits are initially heard by two district judges and one circuit judge. Their ruling can only be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Several lawsuits were filed after Texas legislators redrew voting maps in 2021 following the decennial census. Those suits were consolidated into one case, League of United Latin American Citizens versus Abbott. As with the 2021 lawsuit, the latest complaint claims the new map harms the voting rights of Latino and Black voters. Time is running short, with the filing deadline for candidates on Dec. 8. “All of this, every part of this, is about the clock right now,” said Justin Levitt, a voting rights expert at Loyola Law School. “The plaintiffs want an answer as soon as possible. Texas wants to stall like crazy. All of this is about what’s going to get a court to deliver an answer before the next election.” Texas Stock Exchange gets SEC approval The Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange has received approval to operate as a national securities exchange from the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, KERANews reported. The announcement came exactly a year after Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the exchange’s creation. TXSE is the first exchange to receive SEC approval in decades. It will launch trading and corporate listings in 2026. “Today’s approval marks a pivotal moment in our effort to build a world-class exchange rooted in alignment, transparency, and partnership with issuers and investors,” said James H Lee, founder and CEO of TXSE. Its mission, according to a news release, is to “reverse the decades-long decline in the number of U.S. public companies by reducing the burden of going and staying public.” How federal shutdown is affecting Texas The federal shutdown that began last Wednesday is stopping, for now, a chunk of the hundreds of billions of dollars that flow from Washington to Texas each year, the Houston Chronicle reported. Also affected are the more than 230,000 Texans who work for the federal government and will not receive a paycheck until the shutdown ends. That includes members of the military. Texas is home to 14 military bases operated by more than 100,000 enlisted men and women, as well as large numbers of civilians working in support industries such as food service and construction. Medicare and Social Security payments will continue, and military bases and other operations considered essential to national security will continue to operate. Air traffic controllers and employees of the Transportation Security Administration are considered essential employees and are required to continue working without a paycheck until the shutdown ends. Staffing shortages are expected at major Texas airports, as cash-strapped workers either stay home or look for new jobs. In addition, most federal courts will be forced to close if the shutdown lasts very long, as their funding reserves run out. National parks likely will remain open, just without anyone staffing them. Talarico raises $6.2 million in first three weeks of Senate bid State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, raised $6.2 million in the first three weeks of his bid for U.S. Senate, kut.org reported. That far outpaces his main rival for the Democratic nomination, former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who announced raising $4.1 million over three months since launching his campaign on July 1. Talarico’s donations came from more than 125,000 individual contributors across 230 Texas counties and all 50 states, according to his campaign. It is the most a Senate candidate of either party has raised in the first quarter of their campaign in Texas history. “We’re underdogs in this fight against billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians, but more than one hundred thousand people have answered the call to build a new kind of politics,” Talarico, a former public-school teacher, said in a statement. The Democratic nomination for the Senate will face either incumbent John Cornyn or Att. Gen. Ken Paxton, who is challenging him.