The Republican-led Texas Legislature’s special session will include a rare round of mid-decade redistricting.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Texas State Legislature opened a special session today. While many Texans are focused on flood recovery and disaster preparedness, Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider reports a rare mid-decade round of congressional redistricting will take up lawmakers’ attention over the next month.
ANDREW SCHNEIDER, BYLINE: Texans were still absorbing the shock of the deadly Hill Country flood when Governor Greg Abbott proclaimed the agenda for the special session. But the agenda also included congressional redistricting. State Representative Gene Wu of Houston heads the Texas House Democratic Caucus.
GENE WU: You’re using one of the absolute worst tragedies that has hit Texas families in a long time – since, like, Uvalde – and use that to give yourself a political advantage. What kind of craven, disgusting political maneuver is that?
SCHNEIDER: Abbott said he was adding redistricting to the special session call in response to a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, which identified four congressional districts representing communities in which Black and/or Latino residents make up a majority as, quote, “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.” Democrats have ridiculed that explanation, saying it’s Republicans who are racially gerrymandering. The Texas Republican Party has been transparent that it hopes redistricting can help preserve GOP control of Congress. President Trump has said he hopes Republicans can gain five seats with a map redraw.
SYLVIA GARCIA: Regrettably, you know, they have the votes.
SCHNEIDER: Houston Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia represents one of the districts Trump’s Justice Department wants redrawn.
GARCIA: So unless we fight back – and we intend to fight back – and we fight back strong and make sure that our voices are heard, we may end up with a very, very different map, and people are going to be confused, not knowing who their rep is and what’s going on. So it is truly a sad state of affairs.
SCHNEIDER: But Washington State Congresswoman Susan DelBene, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says Republicans should be careful what they wish for.
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SUZAN DELBENE: So any new map that Texas Republicans draw will almost certainly increase the number of competitive districts, thereby endangering more Republican incumbents. It’s basic math. For them to try to break up Democratic-held districts, they will have to weaken Republican districts who already are facing political headwinds.
SCHNEIDER: GOP strategist Sara Marie Ridley admits that Republicans are running a calculated risk, but she says the redistricting isn’t as dramatic as it’s being characterized.
SARA MARIE RIDLEY: And at the end of the day, voters are always going to have the power to determine their representation. And so if you really don’t like it, then use it to motivate voters who may have otherwise stayed home.
SCHNEIDER: We reached out to multiple Texas Republican members of Congress and Republican state lawmakers to ask about redistricting. None were available to comment. The special session is set to run 30 days, ending in mid-August. For NPR News, I’m Andrew Schneider in Houston.
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