Democrats blast GOP-proposed Texas congressional maps in redistricting showdown
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett said Friday that GOP-proposed congressional maps in Texas would draw her out of the district where she lives, part of a redistricting effort Democrats say is aimed at at picking up five seats to keep Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
During public testimony at a hearing on the plan in the state capitol, Crockett said she had been asked to confirm her home address by the legislature, she said, ahead of the previous field hearings.
"In addition to the fact that I know that this legislature did ask us as members of Congress to confirm our addresses, I don't know how many of us actually still reside in the districts that we represent. I do not currently reside in my district based upon the plan that has been drawn, which is another red flag," she said.
She alleged that some other members had also been drawn out of their seats.
More broadly, Crockett attacked the proposed maps as discriminatory and the map "does nothing but divide, distract and depress," she said.
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who currently represents Texas' 37th Congressional District but would be in the same district as fellow Democratic Rep. Greg Casar if the new maps go through, told the hearing that he is an "unusual opponent of this plan" because more than half of the people in the district he represents, which he said he's filed for reelection in, are still there.
"This is not a Texas map. It is a Trump map. It was not requested by any Republican or any Democrat in Texas. It was imposed by President Trump, who has a stranglehold on Congress, and the only question here is whether he also has a stranglehold on this Texas legislature," Doggett said.
Republican state Rep. Todd Hunter, who filed the bill containing the new maps and chaired the 2021 redistricting committee in the legislature, told the hearing that "political performance" was part of the considerations when drawing the maps.
Hunter also said later that the "newly drawn districts now trend Republican in political performance. Doesn't guarantee electoral success. Does not guarantee; that's up to the candidates, but it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts."
Redistricting in both red and blue states has often been alleged to be partisan; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts cannot police partisan gerrymandering.
Outside of the hearing, protesters gathered in the capitol's rotunda to slam the maps, according to photos shared by state Rep. Gene Wu and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.
Some Republicans have defended the proposed new maps and redistricting effort.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, responding on Thursday to the proposed new congressional maps in his home state, said, "Texas has changed, like many other states, and there are a lot more Republican voters, and they're underrepresented in the current maps. And so this is a chance to align the population changes and the voting changes in Texas with those maps, so that everybody gets fair representation."
