From Bolts Magazine:
The Texas legislature began meeting in a special session last week to adopt a new congressional map that will, they hope, provide additional seats to the GOP in next year’s midterms.
On Wednesday, Republicans released a draft map that could shift as many as five districts their way; the map, if it came to pass as is, would force multiple Democratic members of Congress into red-leaning districts, and pit two Austin Democrats against one another.
The state last redrew its voting maps in 2021, and redistricting again after just five years is rare by national standards. A new gerrymander could help the GOP keep control of Congress, and it could drastically reshuffle local power, including by further diluting the votes of Texans of color.
We asked readers to send us their questions about Texas redistricting as part of our series “Ask Bolts.” And we invited Michael Li, an expert on redistricting, to respond to some of your questions. Li has closely followed years of controversies and litigation over gerrymandering in Texas as senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice.
He answers nine reader-submitted questions, below. You can navigate to the question that most interests you here, or scroll down to explore them all:
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Michael Li is always worth reading on redistricting. He used to run a blog called “Texas Redistricting” that ran during the 2010s and was one of my go-tos for all of the ins and outs of that decade’s saga. He often had updates on the litigation against those maps that I didn’t see anywhere else. The questions asked of him are fairly basic and will not be terrible revealing to anyone who has been following this closely, but if you’re just tuning in or if you’ve got a friend or family member out of state who’s asking you to explain this situation to them, read this or send it to them, it will get you up to speed.
The big and possibly only hearing on redistricting now that a map has been published was yesterday, and I’ll write about that for tomorrow. It looks like the House is preparing to rush this to the floor, so if there’s going to be something disruptive like a quorum break, it will need to happen quickly. Not surprisingly, that means this will be prioritized over flooding, THC, and pretty much everything else.
I may say more later about the hearing. For now the Tl;dr is that the bill was left pending after the hearing, a few more Rs showed up but most speakers still against, the Dems think the map is illegal and the GOPers are insisting that it is legal. They would not say who drew it or when it was drawn.
P.S. thank you for the links to the map.