Republicans mess with Texas district maps to cling to power
Republicans propose a gerrymandered Texas district map that gives them 24 of 38 U.S. House seats despite only getting 53% of votes last November.
This racial gerrymandering denies voting power to 95% of the 4 million new Texans the Census Bureau counted are people of color, half of whom are Hispanic. “They would like to erase African Americans and Hispanics from the state by not allowing them to have access to vote for a person of their choice,” said Rep. Yvonne Davis, a Dallas Democrat, accusing Republicans of “racism” and “racist gerrymandering.” – Seattle Times
This map explains how Texas Republicans are using racial gerrymandering.
Racial composition of every census tract in Texas
Current congressional district boundaries
District boundaries proposed by the Republican legislature
How this would strip Hispanic voters in District 6 of power
Why redistricting matters
The urgent need for federal oversight to stop racist gerrymandering and voter suppression by states
Share this StoryMap freely with this link https://arcg.is/0iu1aj or embed it in a website with this code: < iframe src=”https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/34888cb6591e430c9e0863f292d44e55?header” width=”100%” height=”500px” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen allow=”geolocation”></iframe>
Fight gerrymandering
“They would like to erase African Americans and Hispanics from the state by not allowing them to have access to vote for a person of their choice,” said Rep. Yvonne Davis, a Dallas Democrat, accusing Republicans of “racism” and “racist gerrymandering.”
The Dallas-Fort Worth area gets no additional representation, despite leading the state in growth. And it remains the country’s largest region without a Hispanic-majority district, despite a Hispanic population of 1.7 million – enough to fill two congressional districts. Rep. Rafael Anchía, a Dallas Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, called that a “big glaring omission. … You really have to try hard to deny Latinos in North Texas the ability to elect the candidate of their choice.” – Seattle Times
Supreme Court – Missing in action (MIA)
“The 2021 round of political mapmaking will be the first in nearly half a century without federal oversight that previously helped shield voters of color living in states with a long history of discrimination, like Texas, from being robbed of political clout through gerrymandering.
Congress has worked slowly in its bid to revive some of those protections by restoring pre-clearance, which required the state to submit any changes to its elections and maps for federal review to ensure they would not harm voters of color. The U.S. Supreme Court knocked down that requirement, a lynchpin of the Voting Rights Act, in 2013. This year, the court also continued to whittle away at other portions of the act used to challenge discriminatory districts.” – Texas Tribune
Resources: Redistricting 101
- WhWhat is redistricting?
- Why should you care?
- When are the lines drawn?
- Who draws the lines?
- How can the public engage?
- Where are the lines drawn?
Republican proposed district map PLANC2101
TakeAway: Use StoryMaps to make it easier for voters to see how they are being stripped of their voting rights by racial gerrymandering.
Deepak
DemLabs
Editorial cartoons:
Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.
