Texas Lawmakers Pass New Congressional Maps Bolstering GOP

[riversedge]

Source: huff post



Texas Republicans approved redrawn U.S. House maps that protect incumbents and decrease representation for minorities.

10/19/2021 12:02am EDT | Updated 2 hours ago

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans approved on Monday redrawn U.S. House maps that favor incumbents and decrease political representation for growing minority communities, even as Latinos drive much of the growth in the nation’s largest red state.

The maps were approved following outcry from Democrats over what they claimed was a rushed redistricting process crammed into a 30-day session, and one which gave little time for public input. They also denounced the reduction of minority opportunity districts ― Texas will now have seven House districts where Latino residents hold a majority, down from eight ― despite the state’s changing demographics.

“What we are doing in passing this congressional map is a disservice to the people of Texas,” Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia said to the chamber just before the final vote.

GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign off on the changes. Civil rights groups sued before Republican lawmakers were even done Monday.
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Texas has been routinely dragged into court for decades over voting maps, and in 2017, a federal court found that a Republican-drawn map was drawn to intentionally discriminate against minority voters. But two years later, that same court said there was insufficient reason to take the extraordinary step of putting Texas back under federal supervision before changing voting laws or maps.....................................................

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-congressional-maps-gop_n_616e41cee4b005b245c136fe

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Per the article. Repugs did the same last time with NO consequences. So they did it again!!


@RonFilipkowski
·
2h
Texas received two new seats in Congress based on population increase that was mostly people of color. White Texas Republicans have seized upon that to create two new majority-white districts while eliminating minority districts in new redistributing map.

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

?s=20

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. Joe Manchin Don't Care

Republicons will take over again, this time for good. Thanks to Manchin/Sinema refusing to do what's needed to pass voting rights laws.

We'll all suffer because of those two.

[roamer65]

2. IL negates it with -2 Repuke districts.

[Calista241]

20. Georgia is going to wipe out 2 and possibly as many as 4 Dem districts in 2022.

[YoshidaYui]

3. what a bunch of

ASSHOLES.

[HUAJIAO]

4. How do we fight against this with people like manchin and 'cinema'?

I have no idea ..

If they run again i'd be willing to bet they turn republican...

[leftieNanner]

5. Encouraging to see Marc Elias's Response

Let's hope this map is overturned.

Fingers crossed - but not betting the farm.

[RussBLib]

6. can't we get any good news?

about anything?

This is all really wearing me down.

[Qutzupalotl]

8. Two things today:

Deripaska’s DC residence is being raided by the FBI

Trump’s executive privilege case was assigned to a judge who was horrified by the Jan. 6 attack and gave harsher sentences than prosecutors asked for.

[RussBLib]

10. thanks Qutz

often what you seek is already there

[JudyM]

12. OTC hearing aids are on the horizon with a new FDA proposal today...will be much more affordable.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142815037

[RussBLib]

13. indeed

and hearing tests can be done at home. good news indeed for a very large number of people.

thanks, Judy

[JudyM]

14. You could start a daily or weekly thread for folks to post good news links.

Betting quite a few folks would be into it.

(With apologies to rivers for the hijack )

[RussBLib]

15. or you could

and it would benefit the many

hey, where's the "seriously thinking something over" smiley face?

found one

[Lonestarblue]

7. If Democrats used power the way Republicans do, we would not be in this mess.

Madam Speaker understands and uses power, but she is rare in Congress. She got House Bill 51 passed to grant DC statehood shortly after Biden’s inauguration. Had the Senate ditched the filibuster and voted as quickly, DC could have set up the mechanisms of state government in time for the 2022 election. Puerto Rico should also have been in that bill. Republicans would have done this in a heartbeat if they thought they would get more Republicans elected, but we have some Democrats who are afraid of spending, afraid of looking partisan (they’re Democrats—they should be partisan!), evidently afraid of using power. Sad state of affairs.

[Deminpenn]

9. The thing with these extreme gerrymanders is like

going into the woods, you can only go so far before starting to come out again.

In order to keep or make a majority R registrationn edge, you have to dilute other R districts actually making those districts more competitive.

[FBaggins]

11. That isn't what they did

They strengthened both red and blue districts rather than stretching too many red districts.

There will now be only a couple of marginally competitive seats in the state (possibly as few as one).

The vast bulk of the red districts are now at least R+20.

[LeftInTX]

16. They packed the safe Democratic seats with Democratic precincts....

They removed all Republican precincts from those safe Democratic districts and put them in R-leaning Toss Up districts.

One of the Democrats now does not have a single precinct that did not vote for him. His seat was marginally competitive in 2020 (70% of the vote)...Now it's gonna be like 90% of the vote.

[Deminpenn]

17. It will be interesting to see how turnout is effected

overall with so many non-competitive districts.

[LeftInTX]

18. Yes, it's like, "Why vote?"

It should be illegal

[tclambert]

19. The risk with "packing and cracking"

where you pack as many Democrats into a few districts as possible, and crack the rest into many, many districts with a thin Republican majority is if people move around a little bit, those thin Republican districts can swing Democratic. Or say if some numbskull tells Republicans not to vote because he thinks 2020 was rigged, they could lose several thin districts. Or if your Republican governor acts on the side of a deadly disease and gets of lot of people killed . . .

Anyway, their cheating isn't secure and we shouldn't despair.