Hundreds of people packed an auditorium at UT Arlington Monday night for a hearing about congressional redistricting, and their overwhelming message was that redrawing the maps to give Republicans an advantage is a bad idea.
State lawmakers usually redistrict after the U.S. Census every 10 years. But in June, President Donald Trump told reporters he wants the maps redrawn to favor Republicans, so he can pick up five new seats during midterm elections next year. Historically, the president's party suffers in the midterms.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had a phone call with Trump, and afterwards, he called lawmakers back to Austin for a special session about redistricting, The Texas Tribune reported.
Voting rights in Texas were hard-won, and they’re under attack again, U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said at Monday’s meeting.
“Only now, the weapon is not a billy club or a literacy test, but a partisan pen wielded by those who would rig the system to preserve power rather than earn it,” he said, invoking Jim Crow-era restrictions on Black voters.
Veasey's district could be a target in redistricting. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Texas officials saying four congressional districts represented by Democrats are racially gerrymandered, including Veasey’s and three Houston-area districts. Three out of the four districts are represented by people of color, and all have majority nonwhite voting populations, Houston Public Media reports.
Several speakers at Monday night’s meeting pointed out the fact that Republican legislators voted for the current maps and defended them as “race blind.”
The state also stood behind the current maps in an ongoing lawsuit from civil rights organizations. The lawsuit alleges the district boundaries diluted the power of voters of color.
The 449-seat Rosebud Auditorium at UTA was full long before the 5 p.m. start time. When the meeting started, hundreds of people were left milling around outside, listening to the testimony on their phones. The committee eventually set up an overflow room and broadcast the meeting in the lobby.
Before then, people waiting outside showed off their signs and props.
Former State Rep. Lon Burnam, a Fort Worth Democrat, hoisted a Trump piñata. Ellen Saler-Santini of Dallas dressed as Lady Liberty and had a sign that said “Stop the Steal, Hands Off Our Maps” propped on her walker. One group walked around in the iconic red capes and white bonnets from the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.
This was Ryan Guerra’s first government meeting, he said. The 20-year-old musician from Arlington heard about it from a friend.
"I honestly think it's quite disgusting what they're trying to do," he said. "The mid-decade redistricting, not for any functional reason, but it seems like solely for the purpose of gerrymandering to an even greater extent the already heavily gerrymandered state of Texas.”
There are no proposed maps yet, a fact that angered people at a similar hearing in Houston this weekend. Inside the meeting, almost every speaker who came to address lawmakers opposed redistricting.
Rich Stoglin was one exception. He identified himself as the president of the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County.
“We need Republican leadership for such a time as this,” Stoglin said.
The audience booed Stoglin so loudly he struggled to finish his remarks. Redistricting Committee Chairman Rep. Cody Vasut urged the audience to be quiet.
“This is America. We hear from everyone whether we agree with them or not,” Vasut said.
If that’s the case, this redistricting should not move forward, said Frederick Douglass Haynes, the pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church.
“With this particular dictate coming down from Washington D.C., our voices will not be heard,” he said.
Tarrant County recently completed its own version of this controversial mid-decade redistricting. Republicans on the county commissioners court voted for a new precinct map that will make it harder for one of the court’s Democrats, Alisa Simmons, to win reelection next year.
“They redrew our lines not because of population shift, not because our communities changed, but because they wanted to silence our voices,” she said.
A group of Tarrant County residents have sued over the new maps, alleging racial discrimination. The maps made Simmons’ Precinct 2 more conservative by packing Black and Hispanic voters into a single precinct, the lawsuit alleges.
Republican county commissioners who voted for the plan said they redistricted for the partisan advantage alone, and race did not play a role in the process. They also pointed out Democrats have done the same thing.
Democratic leaders in blue states are thinking about redrawing their own maps to counter Texas, Politico reports. Veasey, whose district could be targeted, has filed a bill that would ban mid-decade redistricting except on a court order.
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