Texas Democrats broke quorum for two weeks, questioned lawmakers for hours on Wednesday, but the redistricting bill could pass on a party-line vote.
AUSTIN, Texas — On Wednesday, the Texas House discussed a controversial redistricting bill after hours of debate in Austin. Debate on the House floor began at 10 a.m. with Democrats doing all they could to slow down the passage of the maps, which could give Republicans five seats in Congress.
Republicans feel they have supporting legal opinions to make these changes, but Democrats spent the day arguing the bill breaks up communities of color and violates the Voting Rights Act.
“This is the most cynical form of cracking and packing on the basis of race,” Mihaela Plesa, a representative from the Dallas area, said.
For hours, Democrat lawmakers questioned the Republican who filed House Bill 4. Rep. Todd Hunter said at the beginning of the meeting that the goal of the new maps was to improve Republican political performance.
“Every time someone doesn’t like redistricting, they use the words crack and pack, I use the words US Supreme Court Rucho…Number two: we didn’t have to have public hearings,” Rep. Hunter said.
The Supreme Court opinion on Rucho v. Common Cause says a jurisdiction may engage in constitutional political gerrymandering. Rep. Hunter said the maps create four Latino majority minority districts, though Democrats believe it dilutes the voices of Latino populations.
“HB 4 silences that diversity instead of celebrating it. Under this map, Latinos in Harris County have been split apart and spread across multiple districts,” Rep. Ana Hernandez, of HD 143, which includes parts of Galena Park and east Harris County, said.
“The facts are East End, inner city Houston, I would suspect have not much in common with Liberty County,” Rep. Armando Walle, from Houston, said.
Republicans are holding firm that redistricting in a non-census year is legal.
“There is nothing wrong with doing redistricting,” Rep. Hunter said.
Earlier in the day, there was a heated debate between Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins of San Antonio and Rep. Hunter. Rep. Gervin-Hawkins and other Democrats left the state to break quorum to slow down the redistricting efforts.
“You own the walkout, you said you did that. But don’t come into this body and say we didn’t include you, you left us for 18 days and that’s wrong,” Rep. Hunter said.
This vote would be a significant step towards the bill becoming law. It still requires review and approval by the Texas Senate, but these new maps could be approved by the weekend. House Democrats said they plan to challenge the maps in court.
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