The Texas Senate approved the new redistricting maps drawn by the state Republicans on the night of Tuesday, August 12. The new maps, which were drawn in the wake of the Department of Justice demanding Texas get rid of “race-based gerrymandering” that has largely benefitted Democrats, get rid of five Democratic districts and create five Republican ones. The Texas House must pass the redistricting map before it can become law.
As background, Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General, announced the crackdown on the sort of gerrymandering that was seen in Texas’s old districts, saying, “We are investigating violations of federal voting laws. We’re ensuring that all 50 states have and continue to have clean voter rolls. We are challenging efforts to suppress or dilute the vote. We are attacking illegal race based gerrymandering, and we are protecting ballot access for all Americans.”
She added, commenting on Texas in particular, “We have sued jurisdictions such as North Carolina for not registering voters properly by first verifying their eligibility. We have notified Texas of grave concerns about congressional districts drawn with racial motivations, and we are suing other jurisdictions where there is evidence of ineligible voters on their voter rolls. Our job is to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. On this anniversary, we honor the Voting Rights Act, not just by remembering it, but by enforcing it for all Americans, and that’s my promise to you.”
So, Texas has engaged in redistricting to get rid of those districts that the DOJ said are examples of “race-based gerrymandering,” and the new map that was created by Gov. Abbott and others will significantly aid Republicans, as it gets rid of five Democratic seats in the United States House of Representatives. One of those seats is the one controlled by Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
The Texas legislature has been fighting over how to pass it since the new map came out, as Democrats in the Texas House fled the state so as to prevent the legislature from being able to create a quorum and vote on the new map. However, the Texas Senate retained enough legislators to vote on the map and not have its legislative proceedings obstructed.
So, able to vote on the redistricting map, it did so on Tuesday night and passed it with an overwhelming majority. Though nine Democratic state senators exited the floor in protest of the map, two remained, which is enough for a quorum, and the map was approved by the Texas Senate in a 19-2 vote. The House Democrats will now return to vote on the map.
Predictably, the Democrats have freaked out over the map, ignoring the fact that gerrymandering is quite prevalent in blue states, such as those in New England. Namely, the Senate Democratic Caucus released a statement saying, “This mid-decade redistricting isn’t about fair representation—it’s about politicians picking their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders.” It added, “And it doesn’t stop here. If they can gerrymander now, they can and will do it before every election.”
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Watch Harmeet Dhillon comment on redistricting here: