Texas Republicans redraw congressional maps to entrench power
Gerrymandering is in full force in the Lone Star state.
GOP Texas lawmakers have given the green light to a new map of U.S. House districts that bolsters Republican incumbents and decreases the power of minorities even as Latinos drive the state’s rapid growth
The nation’s second-biggest Congressional delegation would go from a 23-13 Republican edge to a 24-13 advantage, with one seat that looks competitive between the two parties.
The gerrymandered map adds two seats: one Democratic dominated seat based in the liberal bastion of Austin and a second in a GOP friendly swath of the Houston suburbs.
The new Austin seat is actually aimed at cramming Democratic votes into one district while firmly entrenching four Republican-held seats in the fast growing suburbs, which were rapidly becoming Democratic targets.
It also helps Republicans’ chances of flipping a majority Latino district in South Texas by including more solidly GOP rural areas into it.
The map, which are certain to face legal challenges, was passed late Monday by the GOP-controlled state House and Senate. Gov. Greg Abbott plans to sign it into law.
The map was approved over protests from Democrats. They denounced the reduction of districts where minorities have a realistic chance of winning in the once-a-decade redistricting process, which is driven by Census figures.
Texas will now have seven House districts where Latino residents hold a majority, down from eight, despite minorities accounting for more than 90% of the state’s 4 million in population growth since 2010.
“What we are doing in passing this congressional map is a disservice to the people of Texas,” Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia said.
Civil rights groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, have already sued, claiming the GOP deliberately watered down Latinos’ voting strength.
Republicans insist the map complies with the law. They make no secret of drawing the lines to protect their political power in the fast-changing state.
They did so by bolstering endangered Republican incumbents in increasingly liberal suburbs by shifting their districts deeper into ruby red rural areas. That could make the districts impervious to demographic changes even if Texas Democrats are able to win statewide races.
The maps that overhaul how Texas’ nearly 30 million residents are sorted into political districts comes at the end of a politically charged fight in the state over voting rights.
Democratic lawmakers twice walked out on an elections bill that tightened the state’s already strict voting rules, which they called a brazen attempt to disenfranchise minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters.
Republican state lawmakers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio are likely to follow the same basic formulas to help aid their chances of winning back the House of Representatives.
Unlike past redistricting years, Democrats in strongholds like New York and lllinois are poised to fight gerrymandering fire with fire.
Illinois Democrats issued a map that would all but ensure a 14-3 Democratic delegation while New York could conceivably wind up with a 23-3 majority for Team Blue.
With News Wire Services
