When Texas announced its intention to redraw its maps, apparently following a directive from President Donald Trump to seek five new Republican seats in Congress, California struck back, declaring its intention to implement new districts that would allow for greater Democratic representation.

During the video conference: “Battles over redistricting eruption before the midterm elections,” organized by American Community Media (ACoM), discussed the impact of the new electoral maps and whether minority votes could be diluted as a result.

Representative Gene Wu, the Democratic leader of the Texas House of Representatives, said that in the face of massive price increases, looming job losses, and a 50% drop in tourism in some areas, we are heading straight for the worst recession ever.

“The Republicans, with their blind support for Trump, decided that the only way to survive is to cheat and redistrict regardless of whether we are between censuses.”

He said that now people feel free to draw electoral districts all the time.

"Texas will do it. Missouri says it will. Other places will do it too. The problem is, if this is allowed to happen in every state, whether Republican or Democrat, after every election to make sure never lose, politicians and leaders will stop listening to the people."

He said, why do they need to listen when they are guaranteed to always win?

"Democracy will no longer matter, regardless of what we want for the minority community. Minority communities in Texas and elsewhere have gained power, and now they pose a threat in Houston, South Texas, and Dallas."

So,” he said, “they are separating minority communities that have accumulated power over time.

An unusual redistribution

Sam Wang, president of the Election Innovation Lab at Princeton, said congressional redistricting is unusual for two reasons. 

"Representation in Washington is the sum of the representatives from all the states. At the same time, redistricting is governed by the laws of the 50 states separately." 

One might imagine, he said, that in a rational world, there would be a national standard for partisan gerrymandering, as well as for racial equity and redistricting, and that this would be applied uniformly across all states.

“That's not the case. The Supreme Court has declared partisan redistricting unconstitutional, but it has also refused to do anything about it.” 

I note that the reason we see such diverse responses across these different states is that there are no state laws governing redistricting in Texas. 

“It’s truly the Wild West, and as a result, the only recourse available to Texas Democratic legislators is to deny a quorum, and that is precisely their only leverage, which is why we’ve seen what we’ve seen.”

He said that partisan gerrymandering of electoral districts is attracting public attention like it hasn't in decades. 

On the other hand, I mention that in California, redistricting is written into the state constitution, so the only way to change it is for the voters to vote.

"What's happening right now with the gerrymandering in Texas is that they're on the verge of getting five to seven more seats than they would get during a neutral process."

He said this means Texas now has the dubious honor of having the most extreme gerrymandering in the history of voting rights; and California is a close second.

“The good news is that, for the past ten years, there has been national progress against gerrymandering, a practice that reached its lowest point in 2012, and a wave of laws, voter initiatives, and state court rulings have made it less of a problem.”

However, he said it remains true that gerrymandering reduces competition.

African Americans at a disadvantage

Sara Rohani, assistant general counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the 2020 census results revealed that Black populations were increasing while white populations were declining, including in key jurisdictions where the Legal Defense Fund has worked for decades.

“The data was really clear: Population growth in this country over the past decade has been driven by voters of color, and the new electoral maps should reflect increased voting opportunities for these groups.”

However, she noted that with this being the first preclearance redistricting cycle, a predictable and unfortunate pattern has emerged: states evading their constitutional and statutory obligations when drawing the post-2020 census maps.

“As background, a little over 12 years ago, in 2013, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Shelby County v. Holder that severely weakened a crucial section of the Voting Rights Act. By declaring the preclearance framework unconstitutional, the court opened the door to a series of suppressive election laws and racial vote dilution tactics that have severely harmed Black voters in this country.”

Republican Advantage

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, said the current congressional map, drawn by the Texas legislature in 2021, is itself an attempt to maximize Republican advantage.

“The legislature and governor of the state of Texas have been in Republican hands for several decades, and every decade they try, within the law, to maximize Republican advantage.”

I have noted that the state of Texas has been challenged decade after decade, successfully, for failing to create justifiable new seats for the growth of minority communities, particularly the Latino community.

"MALDEF has been involved in all of those challenges. So, in order to gain five more seats and maximize the Republican advantage, they have to violate the Voting Rights Act, and that's what they're doing with the map that's being considered by the legislature and that will be signed by the governor."

He has stated that this map will be challenged once adopted to prevent it from going into effect in 2026.

“These new maps violate the Voting Rights Act, as the only means of gaining greater advantage after the maps adopted in 2021, which, on their face, were designed to maximize the Republican advantage in the state of Texas.”

In California, voters will decide in November whether to approve new maps designed to help Democrats gain five more House seats next year, after Texas Republicans submitted their own redrawn map to increase their House majority by the same number of seats, at the behest of President Donald Trump.