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Texas Republicans' congressional map carves up Rep. Jackson Lee's district, siphoning off thousands
This district was Barbara Jordan's district. It is disgusting for the Texas GOP to gut this district. I know both Sheila and Al
Link to tweet
A new Texas congressional map shreds Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s Houston-based district, siphoning off thousands of her Black constituents and forcing her into a potential primary against her neighboring Black incumbent, Rep. Al Green (D).
Critics of the new plan say it’s a racial gerrymander intended to weaken Black voices in Congress.
Jackson Lee, 71, is the second-longest-serving member in the Texas delegation, having represented the state’s 18th District for nearly three decades. Since it was won by Barbara Jordan in 1972, the first Black woman to represent the state, the boundaries have largely remained the same.
But now, Texas Republicans in charge of redistricting have advanced a map that would remove downtown Houston, with Jackson Lee’s main district office, two universities and the predominantly Black Third Ward neighborhood, long considered the center of Black life in Houston, from the 18th District.
“I’m very hurt,” Green, 74, said in an interview. “I’ve lived long enough to see change and progress; this is a retrogression, it takes us back to a time when persons who had the authority could abuse that authority with impunity, I just hope that this is not just the case.”
Green and Jackson Lee appealed to the Texas Republicans in a Sept. 29 letter, decrying the new lines as an “act of racial discrimination.” When they received word Tuesday that the map was going before the House redistricting committee the next day, they left Washington late that night to make it to Austin on Wednesday in time to testify against it.
Critics of the new plan say it’s a racial gerrymander intended to weaken Black voices in Congress.
Jackson Lee, 71, is the second-longest-serving member in the Texas delegation, having represented the state’s 18th District for nearly three decades. Since it was won by Barbara Jordan in 1972, the first Black woman to represent the state, the boundaries have largely remained the same.
But now, Texas Republicans in charge of redistricting have advanced a map that would remove downtown Houston, with Jackson Lee’s main district office, two universities and the predominantly Black Third Ward neighborhood, long considered the center of Black life in Houston, from the 18th District.
“I’m very hurt,” Green, 74, said in an interview. “I’ve lived long enough to see change and progress; this is a retrogression, it takes us back to a time when persons who had the authority could abuse that authority with impunity, I just hope that this is not just the case.”
Green and Jackson Lee appealed to the Texas Republicans in a Sept. 29 letter, decrying the new lines as an “act of racial discrimination.” When they received word Tuesday that the map was going before the House redistricting committee the next day, they left Washington late that night to make it to Austin on Wednesday in time to testify against it.
There will be litigation
Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the NAACP, said Republicans who control both chambers of the state legislature “cut it up this way to engage in anti-Black activity. They weren’t paired by accident; they were paired by design.”....
Bledsoe said that doesn’t shield them from a legal challenge under the 1965 Voting Rights Act because both districts are deemed African American opportunity seats, so they’re not allowed to change the “character” of them.
Bledsoe said the Republicans “took out the economic engine” of the 18th District and sliced up historically Black neighborhoods, while drawing a new White-majority, Republican-friendly seat to the north of Houston.
Bledsoe said that doesn’t shield them from a legal challenge under the 1965 Voting Rights Act because both districts are deemed African American opportunity seats, so they’re not allowed to change the “character” of them.
Bledsoe said the Republicans “took out the economic engine” of the 18th District and sliced up historically Black neighborhoods, while drawing a new White-majority, Republican-friendly seat to the north of Houston.
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