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"Bonilla's old district was 66% Hispanic, and he took it and held it."

Yeah, but the old 23rd district (i) had very few Democrat Anglos (most of its Anglos were Bexar County Republicans, (ii) had fewer blacks than just about any other district in Texas, and (iii) had a large number of non-citizen or otherwise non-voting Hispanics. This is why Bush was able to get 56% of the vote in 2000 in the old 23rd and why the GOP performance in 2002 (with a Hispanic Democrat from Laredo running for Governor) was like 46%. The new 25th CD (i) is chock full of Anglo liberals from Austin, (ii) has a substantial black minority---17% of its Austin residents are black) and (iii) includes some of the few Rio Grande Valley Counties where Hispanics actually go out and vote, and overwhelmingly vote Democrat (Starr, Duval and Jim Hogg), which is why its 2002 Republican performance was only 31%, 15% lower than in Bonilla's old 23rd (in which he barely won with 51% in 2002 even though he was a 10-year incumbent). It would take a miracle for us to win the new 25th CD. We'd have a lot better chance in the new 15th, 27th and 28th CDs, or even in the new 16th, 20th and 29th CDs.