Statement on Republican Congressional Re-Redistricting Map:
Talking first about Republicans and Democrats when analyzing the Trump-ordered congressional map finally made public this morning misses the point. The map is a statewide assault on minority citizens. It systematically packs and cracks minority neighborhoods to erase their voting strength.
The 13 existing districts where minority citizens have the ability to elect their candidate of choice have been shuffled, divided, and abused leaving, at best, eight districts where minority citizens will have the strongest voice. If the Voting Rights Act exists as a law to protect minority voting rights, this map violates it.
There will be time for deep electoral analysis of the map. It’s clear enough now that if this map is adopted, some Republicans will be vulnerable and could lose. The most striking feature of the map, though, is its exposure of the open hostility that Trump and the cowardly Republican leaders doing his bidding hold for most Texans.
Spineless Texas Republicans hid this map for a reason. It is an assault on fair-minded Texans.
