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Hello Fellow Democrats,
Much of the political news last week centered on Austin, TX where Governor Greg Abbott, at the request of Donald Trump, has called for a Special Session of the legislature to gerrymander the Congressional Districts in his state in order to give Republicans five more seats (and Democrats five fewer) in the next Congress. Typically, new Congressional District maps are only drawn following the constitutionally mandated census (per Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution) every ten years. There are some exceptions, but unless new states are added exceptions are usually by court order to correct a map that was drawn illegally. Such is potentially the case right now, with Texas’ current map being contested in the courts, since it was obviously gerrymandered based on race, which is against the law.
But the current racially skewed map in Texas notwithstanding, Trump and Abbott think that they can do a better job of being racist. The Texas legislature is pushing an even bolder, more racist map that will take away five Democrat-held seats and give them to Republicans, cramming nearly 90% of non-white Texas voters into just eight Congressional Districts instead of the currently gerrymandered 13 districts. Donald Trump has fully endorsed this plan since, as he put it, “we are entitled to five more seats” based on the fact that he won Texas in the 2024 election.
Now, redrawing political district maps is a complicated process, with several criteria mandated by federal law, the big three being population size balance, contiguity and “communities of interest”. Political affiliations of the population CAN be taken into consideration, but racial makeup MUST NOT! Never has “entitlement” based on the results of a previous election ever been a valid criterion. But then along comes Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed #1 authority in the world on percentages by claiming to lower the cost of prescription drugs by 1,500%, and he thinks that the GOP is “entitled” to more seats in a mid-cycle redistricting because he won Texas in the last election.
So, since King Donald loves percentages so much, let’s look at reality by percentages. He won Texas with 56.14% of the vote compared to Kamala’s 42.46%. Winning by almost 14% is a pretty convincing win but now let’s look at what it should “entitle” the GOP to. The current makeup of Texas’ Congressional delegation is 25 Republican seats, 11 Democrat seats and one currently empty seat that’s normally a Democrat-held district. That means that Republicans ALREADY have 65.7% of the state’s delegation, far more than Trump’s 56.14% win. If the GOP gets to illegally gerrymander another five seats away from Democrats, it would boost their percentage to a ridiculous 78.9%!
I’m not advocating for redistricting based on election results here, but if maps were redrawn along the lines of what each party should be “entitled” to based on election results, the GOP should GIVE UP four seats to Texas Democrats to make the balance 55.2% Republican and 44.8% Democrat, the closest that we can mathematically get to the election results. This proposed redistricting in Texas is as blatant a power grab as you can get. Hopefully, it will cause the GOP to LOSE Texas completely in the next election!
STAND UP! PUSH BACK! FIGHT FOR OUR NEIGHBORS IN TEXAS!
Bill
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