After the 2003 Texas redistricting, engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, TX-17 was (along with MS-4) the most heavily Republican district in the nation to be represented by a Democrat, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which rated it R+20.

[7] The district was drawn to make it Republican-dominated and unseat its longtime incumbent, conservative Democrat Chet Edwards.

Flores retired after five terms and former Texas 32nd district Congressman Pete Sessions, a Waco native, was elected in 2020.

After passage of civil rights legislation and other changes, through the late 20th and early 21st centuries, white conservatives began to shift into the Republican Party in Texas.

They first supported presidential candidates, and gradually more Republicans for local, state and national office, resulting in the 2010 switch in party representation.