Redistricting fight over Texas congressional maps moves to courtroom this week to determine if they're constitutional
On Wednesday, the legal fight over the newly approved congressional maps in Texas will shift from the Capitol to a federal courtroom in El Paso. That's when federal judges will consider a lawsuit by a variety of plaintiffs against the State of Texas.
They say the newly drawn districts in the middle of the decade aimed at giving Republicans five new seats violate Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and will hurt minorities by preventing them from receiving fair representation. Republicans have insisted they did not consider race when drawing up the new maps and that they reflect the fact that President Trump won most of the counties along the Texas border in last year's election.
In interviews with CBS News Texas, elected leaders on both sides of the political aisle feel confident the three-judge panel in El Paso will rule in their favor.
State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, said, "In the case of these maps, I think we've got a really good shot at winning. In fact, there've been findings of discrimination, both intentional and discriminatory in effect, every decade since the 1970s. When the Texas Legislature has done redistricting, the maps have been overturned. We've seen that regularly. These maps are so egregious, and they dilute the voting rights of so many Texans that I feel that we've got a very strong chance to overturn them."
State Rep. Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall, said she believes the new maps will stand up in court.
"Any time that the Democrats don't get their way, they cry racism. That is the standard operating procedure, and I think that if anyone had come to any of the three public hearings that we had across the state, they would realize that these maps actually address some of the concerns that many people have been complaining with regards to gerrymandering. We have essentially un-gerrymandered the map in several places, and just a side-by-side comparison would show you just that," said Pierson.
"These communities are now made whole, counties have been made whole, cities have been made whole," Pierson continued. "I do believe the maps are going to be held up in court. The Supreme Court has already ruled that you can draw maps based on political performance, and that's exactly what the state of Texas has done."
But at least one district in North Texas, the newly drawn 32nd Congressional District, extends from Dallas County to Rockwall County and counties toward East Texas. It will move from a solidly Democratic district to a solidly Republican district if upheld by the courts.
"It's quite simple when you realize that you have to have 760,000 plus people per district," Pierson said. "Texas has a lot of rural areas still, and you have to be able to encompass all of those voters, and so, I think in those areas, you'll see in some cases where that might look that way, it's just because everybody needs to be in a district, so there is no disenfranchisement. I just reject the notion that race is even involved here. There's four new Hispanic seats. It just doesn't make any sense. The problem they have is also acknowledging that people in the state of Texas, under those circumstances, voted for President Trump 56% in the last election cycle, and this map reflects that."
Anchia rejected that.
"Every Latino organization, bipartisan, non-partisan Latino organizations don't believe that Latino voters are empowered under the current map. They saw the 35th Congressional District, which was a performing Latino district in Central Texas, disappear. They saw the performing Latino district in Houston that elected the first Latina in Texas history disappear," said Anchia.
Anchia also gave a local example, saying, "Here in North Texas, the prior 33rd (district) that linked the Latino communities of Dallas and Fort Worth also disappeared. The current 33rd, as it's drawn, will not be performing for a Latino candidate. I doubt very seriously Latinos will be able to elect the person of their choice. The Latino community is already underrepresented under the existing political map. We go backwards under these new maps."
The three-judge panel has scheduled the hearing from Oct. 1-10. No word yet on whether the hearing will be delayed if the government shuts down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.