UTA hearing draws vocal crowd of redistricting opponents

Texas lawmakers sat in front of a jeering crowd for over six hours Monday evening as residents from across the state joined politicians and others opposed to the Legislature’s efforts to redraw congressional district maps mid-decade.

The meeting at the University of Texas at Arlington was the Texas House redistricting committee’s last of three hearings held across the state as legislators consider redrawing a handful of congressional seats, which may include District 33, held by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. 

All but a couple of speakers expressed opposition to the redistricting during the hearing held at the University Center Rosebud Theater, which was filled to its capacity of 435 people. 

Speakers were diverse in age, hometown and ethnicity, but their testimonies were largely unified by a core message over the night: The redistricting effort is an attempt to silence minority voices and a Republican power grab that Texans don’t want. 

They urged lawmakers to weigh their honor, their faiths and their reason for being in office as they considered redistricting. 

Fort Worth resident Terry Morgan told the 15-member panel that as a lifelong Texan resident, she sees how the state is “gerrymandered to death already.”

“The four districts in Texas being targeted are all represented by people of color,” Morgan said. “It is clearly an effort to undermine the voting strength of minority Texans.”

The efforts to change the district maps come after President Donald Trump said Texas could play a significant role in ensuring a Republican majority in the U.S. House through redistricting efforts that could flip seats in favor of the GOP. All representatives are up for reelection during the 2026 midterm races. 

State legislators typically draw congressional district maps at the start of each decade after every census. The Legislature approved Texas’ current map in 2021, ultimately drawing districts that protected incumbents’ seats and ensured the state’s two new congressional seats were safely red. It yielded 25 Republican seats and 13 Democratic seats in the two elections since.

In the U.S. House, Republicans currently have a thin majority of 219 seats to Democrats’ 212. Four more are vacant following the deaths of three Democrats and one Republican. 

Democrats, speakers criticize gerrymandering of current maps

Trump told reporters he hoped Texas’ redistricting would result in five new Republican-held seats in the House. 

At the start of the hearing, Texas state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, called the redistricting “unusual and unnecessary.” Rosenthal, the committee’s vice chair, criticized the state’s current district maps for bolstering the voices of white voters. 

Between 2010 and 2020, people of color, mostly Hispanic Texans, represented 95% of the state’s population growth of about 4 million.

Because of population growth, Texas gained two congressional seats in 2021. Both districts were drawn to include a majority white voters. Those maps are in court after a legal challenge alleging they were gerrymandered based on race.

Arlington resident Selena Vasquez, a teacher by training and member of the Democratic National Committee, said she testified on behalf of her church’s “regular working-class families.”

“Families like mine, who live, work and worship here, oppose any effort to disenfranchise and disempower the Latino community,” she said. “We’re opposed to the changes on any of these maps.”

As an election worker, Fort Worth native Cindy Rocha said she often sees voters confused why they can’t vote where they always have, who they’re voting for or why they’re in a new district. She said after she explains redistricting to them, they often don’t feel motivated to vote anymore, and the exchange ultimately results in disenfranchisement.

“Texas is already one of the hardest places in the nation to register to vote and then to vote,” she said. “Please do not add additional confusion by redrawing districts.”

Veasey’s district caught in crosshairs of redistricting effort

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers argue that Veasey’s district is one of four that “constitute unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.”

In a July 7 letter to Texas state leaders, the DOJ called the four districts “coalition districts,” which are districts that include various racial groups to constitute a majority. The districts are, therefore, not federally protected, the letter notes.

Rich Stoglin, president of Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County, was one of the lone speakers in support of the redistricting, saying he believes the country is heading in the wrong direction.

He said Texas and the country do not deserve “to continue (in) systemic gang and street violence.” He criticized the educational system as “plummeting” and said communities are deteriorating.

“Democrats sit quietly and fail to condemn or acknowledge a systemic moral decay, screaming systemic racism for anything that does not fit the narrative,” Stoglin said. “These acts of evil must stop.”

Veasey’s 33rd District is a sprawling, claw-shaped district covering mostly Democratic-leaning communities across Tarrant and Dallas counties. He’s held the seat since 2011, when it was created as a voting rights district to ensure representation for communities of color.

It’s 58% Latino, 18% Black, 13% white and 8% Asian. In a redrawing, this district could be split, with its bluest precincts going to districts with wide GOP majorities, according to a study by David Wasserman, a senior elections analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Roderick Miles Jr., Democratic Tarrant County commissioner, said in his testimony that the district was meant to ensure neighborhoods weren’t split just because they vote differently.

“This mid-decade redistricting would not just reverse progress. It would deepen the harm and dishonor the courts, the people and the principle of equal representation,” he said.

Veasey, who testified at the hearing, won reelection with 68.8% of the vote in the 2024 election.

“Today, I come before you not as a congressman, but as a witness, because the communities I represent and love are under attack,” Veasey said. “The right to vote … is once again under siege, only now the weapon is not a billy club or a literacy test, but a partisan pen ruled by those who would rig the system to preserve power rather than earn it.”

Abilene resident Samuel Garcia said he drove three hours to speak at the meeting. 

He said lawmakers should “earn” their honor daily as they ask themselves why they are legislators. 

“You know it’s wrong in your heart,” Garcia said. “When your kids or your grandkids ask you one day as a state representative, ‘Did you always do the right thing?’ You’ve got two answers you can choose from: You’re either going to have to admit to them that, ‘Oh, sometimes I just did things just for power, sometimes I did that,’ or you’re going to have to lie to your kids and lie to your grandkids and tell them you didn’t.”

The audience gave Garcia a standing ovation as he left the microphone.

Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, chairs the Senate’s redistricting committee. King represents large swaths of Tarrant County, including parts of Fort Worth.

The Legislature has not yet revealed any proposed maps, which many speakers criticized throughout the evening’s hearing. 

Republican leaders in the House redistricting committee have said the hearings will shape whether and how the maps are redrawn.

Texas last saw a similar mid-decade redistricting in 2003, after Republicans gained control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years and wanted the federal seats to reflect their majority. 

At that time, Democrats held 17 of 32 Texas seats in the U.S. House. The mid-decade redistricting effort passed. The 2004 election yielded 21 seats to Republicans and 11 to Democrats.

Redistricting is one of 18 agenda items for a special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott following the spring’s regular session. 

The Legislature’s special session began on July 21. Lawmakers can stay in a special session for up to 30 days. 

Leaders of the Texas House and Senate have said both chambers were “aligned in their focus to ensure redistricting plans remain in compliance with the U.S. Constitution.”

Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. 

The Fort Worth Report’s Texas legislative coverage is supported by Kelly Hart. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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