Texas House committee advances redrawn congressional map

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas House Redistricting Committee advanced a redrawn congressional map Saturday that looks to add five new Republican seats to Congress next year.

The map passed on a 12-6 party line vote Saturday morning.

The map could be considered in the full House as early as Tuesday.

Before the vote, Democrats on the committee blasted the decision to redraw the maps, which they say is being done out of Republican’s fear of getting on the wrong side of President Donald Trump.

“Please note that this fight is far from over, and Democrats will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight,” Rep. Chris Turner said referencing the hundreds of people who spoke against the map in Austin Friday.

Republican committee members did not make any comments on the process Saturday morning.

The committee spent Friday hearing from hundreds of people during its only public hearing on the map.

The map’s author on Friday defended it as partisan, but legal.

What they’re saying:

“I’m telling you, I’m not beating around the bush. I’m telling you that we have five new districts. And these five new districts are based on political performance,” replied Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican and the bill’s author.

Hunter said his map was drawn with the understanding that the Supreme Court allows partisan redistricting.

On Saturday, Rep. Christian Manuel warned that redrawing congressional maps can have an impact on economic drivers in those areas, sometimes setting communities and cities back.

The Port Arthur Democrat pointed out two other times the maps were redrawn that he said directly impacted his district.

“It was a true coalition working-class district. It was moms and dads who work 9 to 5 who are trying to make it work. And I grew up seeing my city get to a point where it could have risen to something, and now it’s in decay,” Manuel said. “We lost our representation in economic engines to larger parts of the district that had nothing in common with us.”

Manuel warned Republicans that not listening to those who made public comments could have repercussions down the line.

“What I don’t understand is yesterday and the days before, we heard people who were telling you they were hurting and that they’re scared. And this is the same thing that happened when Democrats didn’t listen during the era of the Tea Party. And we paid for that,” Manuel said. “We always say, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, but some people don’t have boots. All I’m saying is please listen to these people’s hurt. If you want to pass the bill, pass it. But please just listen to what they were saying before you pass it.”

Others on the committee, like Rep. Joe Moody questioned why more time was being spent on redistricting instead of flood relief efforts in Central Texas.

Moody was in Kerrville for a public hearing on Thursday.

“We spent so much more time on this mid-decade redistricting,” Moody said. “And I initially have written here that I want to tell you how sad that made me, but quite honestly, it p—es me off.”

Moody echoed the same sentiments Democrats had said from the beginning that redistricting was a power grab.

“We shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t be doing this at all,” Moody said. “Where we should be is back in Kerrville helping people. That’s the kind of thing we run for office to do. Not this. This is politics over people in the grossest way possible.”

Texas Redistricting

The House redistricting committee released the new map on Wednesday. The newly proposed map increases the number of congressional districts that would have voted for Trump by at least 10 percentage points by five.

Republicans currently control 25 of the state’s 38 Congressional districts.

The new map makes some big changes in North Texas. It moves Democrat Rep. Marc Veasey’s district from Tarrant to Dallas County.

Democrat Rep. Julie Johnson’s district moves from Dallas and Collin County to more conservative sections of East Texas.

And Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s Dallas seat becomes one of just two majority Black districts in the entire state.

The Democrats claim the redrawn maps will violate the federal Voting Rights Act, but that may be difficult for them to prove.

In Central Texas, Democrats Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett would find their districts vastly different from the current map.

The district currently held by Casar would no longer include Travis County, while the district held by Doggett would no longer include a portion of Williamson County.

In Houston, the new map reshapes four currently Democrat-held districts. The biggest change to the districts would be in the seat currently held by Rep. Al Green. The new map would shift the district from covering southern Harris County and instead move it to the eastern part of the county.