The Stakes Of Redistricting

Next week the halls of the Texas Capitol will once again be filled with lawmakers and their staff as they embark upon a special session. And all eyes will be on the lone star state to see whether Republicans can really deliver on the wishes of President Trump about radically redistricting the state to make it even redder.

Punchbowl News reported that earlier this week Trump told congressional Republicans that he hopes to net five seats from this mid-decade redistricting in Texas. Back in June reports started to surface that the White House was looking into a redistricting scheme in Texas in the hopes of preventing Democrats from retaking the U.S. House in the midterm elections. 

When Governor Abbott first announced a special session shortly after Sine Die (the last day of the regular legislature), there were just a handful of agenda items he listed, namely THC regulation after he vetoed a bill championed by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that banned nearly all THC products. But on July 9, Abbott released eighteen additional agenda items. One of those items included redistricting. And specifically, “legislation that provides a revised congressional redistricting plan in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.” 

A few days earlier the Department of Justice did indeed send a letter to Abbott and Ken Paxton about “serious” concerns regarding four congressional districts in the state, three in Harris County and one in North Texas. Harmeet Dhillon, an Assistant Attorney General, outlined how the four districts violated the Constitution by being racially gerrymandered.

It is the position of this Department that several Texas Congressional Districts constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, under the logic and reasoning of Petteway. Specifically, the record indicates that TX-09 and TX-18 sort Houston voters along strict racial lines to create two coalition scats, while creating TX-29, a majority Hispanic district. Additionally, TX-33 is another racially-based coalition district that resulted from a federal court order years ago, yet the Texas Legislature drew TX-33 on the same lines in the 2021 redistricting. Therefore, TX-33 remains as a coalition district.

Ironically, Dhillon’s letter directly contradicts recent testimony from the state of Texas in a lawsuit over Texas maps. LULAC (The League of United Latin American Citizens) filed a federal lawsuit with other coalition partners against Texas in the Western District of Texas in 2021. They alleged that the maps that were announced after the 2020 census ran counter to the Voting Rights Act.

In testimony over the lawsuit in May and June, the state of Texas repeatedly claimed that those 2021 maps were drawn “race-blind.” That was the same defense provided in public hearings over the maps four years ago by Texas Republicans, including State Senator Joan Huffman who was chiefly responsible for redistricting on the Senate side. (Earlier this year Huffman announced she was running in the Republican primary for Attorney General.)

With the special session just days away, the stakes remain extremely high with national implications. Republicans in the U.S. House are operating with a very slim majority (220-212). There are currently three vacant seats because of the deaths of Democratic members, including former Houston mayor Sylvester Turner.

Democrats are hoping that flipping the House could at least stop or thwart some of the radical intentions of the Trump administration. And nobody is more aware of that then current members of the Texas House like State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos.

In an interview with Texas Signal, Rodríguez Ramos said the redistricting plan was an “absolute sign of desperation,” especially in the immediate aftermath of the devastating flooding in Hill Country where there are still dozens unaccounted for. “It’s clear that this redistricting is an attempt by [Republicans] to avoid accountability, especially for Donald Trump,” she said.

No concrete strategy has been announced by Texas Democrats about stopping or delaying redistricting through a quorum break or possible other means though those are tactics that have been rumored. Paxton has said that if there is a quorum break, his office  “stands ready to assist local, state, and federal authorities in hunting down and compelling the attendance of anyone who abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater.”

Texas Congressman Marc Veasey, whose district is one of those being targeted for redistricting, introduced The Anti-Rigging Act, which would ban states from pursuing mid-decade redistricting. Nine other Texas Democrats have joined as co-sponsors of the bill. 

Like Rodríguez Ramos they are urging the rest of the country outside Texas to pay attention to what could happen in the special session. “This is the future of democracy,” Rodríguez Ramos reiterated to the Texas Signal.