Washington, D.C. — This week, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) President, John Bisognano, and Executive Director, Marina Jenkins, provided reporters with an analysis of the gerrymandered congressional map proposed by Texas Republicans. A recording of their remarks can be viewed here. 

As part of the analysis, Bisognano and Jenkins pointed out that Republicans are pushing false claims that Latino communities gain more representation on the map. However, the truth is that Latino voters and Black voters were drawn even fewer opportunity districts on the proposed gerrymander than they have on the Lone Star State’s current discriminatory map that is being challenged in court. 

“This is a power grab, plain and simple, and Texans, especially communities of color who’ve driven nearly all of this state’s growth stand to pay the price,” said Bisognano. 

“Here’s the bottom line: communities of color are already short-changed in the representation they deserve in Texas, because the current map is already egregiously gerrymandered, and the proposed new gerrymander adds even more insult to that injury,” Jenkins later added. 

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON TEXAS’S PROPOSED GERRYMANDER:

The proposed gerrymander packs voters of color into as few districts as possible in some areas and cracks them across several districts in others, effectively reducing the overall number of districts where Black and Latino voters are able to elect candidates of their choice. 

Here are several examples that demonstrate how this is being done:

SAN ANTONIO: The new configuration in the San Antonio metro area packs Latino voters into TX-20, and cracks the urban, Latino populations in San Antonio between three sprawling districts, TX-21, TX-23 and TX-25, that dilute the voice of urban Latino votes by drawing them into districts with otherwise rural white constituencies.

DALLAS: In Dallas, Black and Latino voters were packed aggressively into TX-30 and TX-33, while cracking remaining voters of color across surrounding majority white districts —TX-5, TX-6, TX-12, TX-24, TX-25, and TX-32.

AUSTIN: In Austin, the existing Latino opportunity district, TX-35, was dismantled by cracking Latino communities and combining them with white voters as far as Huntsville and Corpus Christi.

HOUSTON: In Harris County, Republicans eliminated TX-9, a long-standing Black opportunity district, and packed those voters into the only other Black-majority district in Houston, TX-18, essentially halving the number of districts where Black voters have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

HERE’S A SAMPLE OF WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:

“The gambit by Republicans here is to actually increase the number of Hispanic majority districts in terms of population share, but to diminish the opportunities of Hispanic voters to elect their candidates of choice.” — Dave Wasserman, Senior Editor and Election Analyst of Cook Political Report [The Guardian: Texas redistricting: how new Republican maps will hurt Democrats]

“Simply adding additional majority-Hispanic districts isn’t enough to evade scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act. Pointing to the number of quote unquote majority Latino district does not remotely answer the question of whether you have violated the Voting Rights Act.” – Thomas A Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Funds  [The Guardian: Texas redistricting: how new Republican maps will hurt Democrats]

“In states like Texas, where voting is deeply polarized along racial lines, the only way to eke out an even more extreme gerrymander is to mount a wholesale attack on the political power of the growing communities of color who have accounted for nearly all of the state’s population gain since 2020. In fact, the newly proposed map seems drawn to invite Voting Rights Act challenges across the state, especially from massively growing Latino communities. And in a state where the Black population grown by more than any other, the number of Black Democrats could be cut from four to just two.” — Michael Li, Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program [Houston Chronicle: Opinion: Redistricting by Texas Republicans puts Washington D.C. over the rights of Texans]

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