Statement from Eric Holder on the Texas Senate’s Congressional Map Vote
October 6, 2021
Washington, D.C. – Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., 82nd Attorney General of the United States and chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, released the following statement on the Texas Senate’s congressional map vote:
“The passage of the Texas Senate’s congressional map today is yet another blatantly partisan and Democracy defeating attempt to ignore the demographic realities in the 2020 Census data, eliminate competitive seats, and completely silence the will and the voice of Texas voters. This map reduces from 11 to one the number of competitive districts and fails to create any new African-American or Latino/Hispanic districts.
“After hearing from hundreds of Texans over the last couple of months, Texas senators had a choice today: vote ‘no’ and continue to push for maps that offer fair representation or be complicit in supporting a gerrymandered map that clearly ignores both the census data and community input. All senators who voted for this map have chosen to turn their backs on the voters by supporting maps that fail to accurately reflect the diverse demographics of the state and that hurt all people, especially people of color.
“The gerrymandered map passed today shows that Republican legislatures are willing to attack our representative democracy through rampant gerrymandering to hold onto power. Americans everywhere should be repulsed by these continued actions to undermine our democracy. The implementation of this map must be opposed by the Texas House of Representatives, and Congress must work quickly to pass the Freedom to Vote Act to put power back in the hands of the people where it belongs.”
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