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Senate Redistricting met on September 11th to hear public testimony on redistricting. The hearing can be found here.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Public Testimony

Marc Veasey, U.S. Congress 33rd District

  • District is made up of 88% minority population; population growth driven by new minority residents, 500,000 new residents; Anglo population decreasing
  • No reason to use redistricting to strengthen Anglo vote
  • District was created by court order; had front seat to previous lawsuit to protect district’s voting rights, don’t want to go down that path again
  • Want to pay attention to the Hispanic population; want to create new Hispanic opportunistic district, but not an excuse to eliminate 33rd district as a minority district

 

Benjamin Chu

  • Wants TX government to create first Asian-American plurality senate district in TX
  • Asian-Americans form more than 5% of state, at least one district should be Asian Opportunity district
  • Currently there is no district with more than 21% Asian population; opportunity to form district near Houston that is non-partisan, solely based on population of Asian-Americans
  • Asian population within proposed district would be 30%

 

Tim Dowling, Corpus Christi Resident

  • Concern over lack of transparency regarding goals of redistricting; wants fair representation within districts
  • Current representation is not proportionate to TX population
  • Argues for traditional drawing of South Texas counties to accurately represent the population

 

Martha Spinx

  • Constituent of Congressman Chip Roy, angered by his words regarding Liberal constituents; wants to vote Roy out, but difficult to do due to lines of district
  • Argues elections aren’t competitive, voters asking what the point is
  • Redistricting as it is is harmful to democracy

 

Sonya Sultan, TX AAPI Redistricting Coalition

  • Feels minority voices are being silenced by redistricting
  • Points to the variety of districts within her own school district as evidence that redistricting splits up minority population vote
  • Wants TX government to hold public testimony after redistricting

 

Sherri Mercer, Dallas resident

  • Wants neighborhood to remain one district in order to maintain competitiveness

 

Cassie Tisdale, East Dallas resident

  • Requests hearings after districts are drawn but while they’re still in draft so public can have input
  • Feels votes are diluted due to expanse of district that is not representative of each segment of population

 

Kelly Darby, Round Rock resident

  • Round Rock area fastest growing area in TX; such fast-paced growth means census data might already be out of date
  • Asks for transparency throughout redistricting process

 

Cameron Shepherd, Mi Familia Vota

  • Wants community to be fairly counted in redistricting process; Austin saw incredible population growth, wants diversity of voices to be shown
  • Wants democracy to be upheld and votes to not be diluted

 

Aneel Provakur, Austin Resident

  • Representation depends on drawing of districts
  • Partitioning of Travis County done to dilute advocacy power of residents
  • Wants explanation from representatives as to why districts are drawn the way they are; wants district redrawing to be nonpartisan

 

Taylor James, Austin Resident

  • Outlines local issues, urges keeping communities of interest together so that local issues can be decided upon by locals

 

Sophia Stanzo, Allen Resident

  • Allen ISD needs to stay within one district, as public education is highlight of town
  • TX continually violates voting rights act every single year; doesn’t have to be this way; break the shameful cycle of racial gerrymandering
  • Want hearings after districts are drawn so public can give input

 

Stephanie Parsian, Arlington and Tarrant County Resident

  • References growing diversity of county
  • Wants county to reflect diversity
  • Wants public hearings to give input on how districts are drawn

 

Irma Guadamara, Kyle Resident

  • County split between two districts; Hayes County has grown by 84,000; 38.5% Hispanic, 50.4% Anglo; Hispanic population is the community of interest, needs to be recognized
  • Need to strengthen democracy and voting rights

 

Roy Charles Brooks, Tarrant County Commissioner

  • Voting freedoms belong to all Texans
  • Failing to acknowledge rights of Tarrant County voters is unfair and unconstitutional
  • Draw maps that reflect population and voting strength of minority voters
  • Leaving out minority voter voices is discriminatory and in violation of voting rights act
  • Lists proposed changes for each district

 

Mary Selby, Austin resident

  • Asks for transparency throughout redistricting process, calls attention to voting rights act
  • Needs aren’t being served by districts that encompass both urban and rural communities; differences in needs that should be represented
  • Wants public to be able to review maps before next hearing, as well as explanations regarding the new districts

 

Stacy Hackenburg, Justice of the Peace Williamson County

  • Districts impact all aspects of society; if representatives don’t reflect community, voices are not heard
  • Avoid wasting taxpayer dollars from lawsuits, get redistricting right the first time

 

Rose Frank, Precinct Chair for Travis County

  • District is known for gerrymandering
  • Representatives should be ashamed of reputation for unfairly drawing district maps and silencing votes
  • Eliminate corruption from district maps
  • Recent growth in TX led by communities of color
  • Keep communities of interest together

 

Alex Mead, Travis County Resident

  • All of the house districts in Austin represented by democrats, senate districts represented by republicans; doesn’t make sense
  • Wants fair maps that are balanced without regard to political affiliations
  • Differential privacy rules impact how maps will be drawn; using narrow geographies allow inaccuracies to seep into district making; focus on broader geographies and fair maps

 

Jerry Stein, Southwest Ft. Worth Resident

  • Poorly drawn boundaries have unintended consequences; impacts finances of healthcare
  • Has second home in Gainesville; concerned about local hospitals in area that are impacted by badly drawn district
  • Redistricting can provide safe houses for radical politicians
  • Wants fair district maps

 

Lorraine Birabil, Former State Representative and Rep. of Barbara Jordan Institute

  • Growth in Texas thanks to minority communities; new congressional districts should be minority opportunity districts
  • Inability to elect representative of choice due to unfair district
  • Protect minority voices with new districts

 

Eric Vormelker, Austin Resident

  • Redistricting should protect minority voices, lower-income voices
  • Politicians should not redraw districts based on how they can stay in power
  • Current representatives represent a minority of TX

 

Sandra Weinstein, Flower Mound Resident and Rep. of Stand Up Republic TX

  • Redistricting should be a bi or nonpartisan process
  • Argues that gerrymandering is undemocratic

 

Victor Villareal, Judge of Webb County Court of Law

  • Courts prevail over several counties and communities, makes them communities of interest; should be in one district together; have shared legal responsibilities

 

Devan Allen, Commissioner for Tarrant County Precinct 2

  • Precinct includes several varying communities and districts
  • Anglo population dropped within county; district needs to mirror population growth and demographics
  • Core of minority districts must be maintained
  • Heavy burden of distrust on representatives
  • Reject discriminatory actions of past, and uphold voting rights of minorities of the state

 

Emily Penal, Este Poder organization

  • Don’t want hard work on census to be ignored; want fair redistricting process to reflect work of census
  • Faced with opportunity to draw districts fairly the first time; uphold democracy with fair redistricting

 

Jeff Harper

  • Should have a 14-day comment and review period for newly-drawn maps
  • Representatives should remove themselves from redistricting process, should form redistricting commission to do it
  • Wants to raise number of TX house seats to correspond to U.S. house seats

 

Aisha Sabier, Killeen County Resident

  • Minority communities historically have had their voices and votes silenced at ballot box due to unfair district maps

 

Linda Curtis, Founder of League of Independent Voters of TX

  • Feels party in power will do what it wants when it comes to gerrymandering
  • TX does not allow coalition to create a more fair voting district system
  • Desire to end partisan gerrymandering

 

Hui Chi, OCEA Greater Houston

  • Respect federal and state law, voting rights act
  • Keep Pearland community together; homogeneity in community creates collective voice, should be one district and not diluted with another
  • Wants public hearing before any maps are finalized, 2 weeks for public viewing and hearing

 

Karen Chiver, Grimes County Resident

  • Districting maps will impact people for a decade
  • Allow virtual testimony regarding redistricting; allow public testimony to be held for 2 weeks
  • Splitting up communities, neighborhoods, towns, and counties dilutes people’s voices and concerns

 

Pam Durham, Fort Worth Resident

  • Each community has distinct needs; current neighborhood split between two districts
  • Preserve county lines and school districts as they are communities of interest
  • Allow minority communities to be consolidated so their voices can be heard
  • Proposes redistricting ideas for DFW area

 

Gary Bledsoe, NAACP

  • Allow public comment on redistricting map
  • Allowing minority groups to have their own districts strengthens the state and country
  • Overlook partisan leaning and focus on populations and their demographics
  • Give deference to minority representatives in maintaining their incumbent protection
  • Treat urban areas appropriately; Travis County historically mistreated, allow county fair representation
  • Don’t pit minority populations against each other in attempt to establish districts
  • Population percentages shouldn’t be limited to be 50.1%; courts have already ruled that this is problematic

 

Jane Hope Hamilton, Co-Founder of Barbara Jordan Institute

  • TX growth due to minority population growth; 2 new congressional districts should be minority opportunity districts; add to, don’t take away, from the 13 other minority opportunity districts
  • Dallas-based Hispanic district; don’t use as an excuse to weaken or replace other minority-led districts
  • The 3 members of Congress representing minority controlled districts are members of the Black caucus; since enactment of VRA, no state plan that has been allowed to stand that eliminates a congressional Black caucus member
  • Put partisan politics aside and do not engage in racial gerrymandering

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