At Last-Minute Redistricting Hearing, Democrats Blast GOP’s Anti-Democratic Process

At the start of a contentious, hours-long hearing in the Texas House of Representatives to debate the new, GOP-drawn congressional map, Rep. Jon Rosenthal (D) had a pointed question for Rep. Cody Vasut (R), the chair of the House redistricting committee.

“My question is, does the leadership of the state truly think that the constituents, the people of Texas, are that stupid?” Rosenthal asked Vasut. 

Vasut never answered the question.

Instead, for more than two hours, Vasut and his Republican colleagues on the redistricting committee faced heated questions from Democrats about their last-minute scheme to pass a new congressional map that could give the GOP as many as five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and disempower millions of Black and Brown voters: Why were they trying to push a new map so soon after passing one in 2021? Why did the state seem to flip its stance on the use of race in the process? What was the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) role in pressuring the state to introduce a new map?

In early July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) added a rare mid-decade redistricting to the state’s upcoming special session agenda — reportedly at the behest of President Donald Trump, in an attempt to further hinder Democrats’ chance of flipping the House. 

On Wednesday, Republicans finally released their draft map, confirming that as many as five Texas congressional seats could flip from blue to red-leaning districts. Shortly after, Vasut announced Friday’s hearing would be the one and only opportunity for both lawmakers and the public to voice their concerns about the official map, before an expected vote on the House floor early next week.

During the hearing, Democrats repeatedly charged that a single hearing was not nearly enough time to address the numerous controversies surrounding the rushed redistricting process.

Chief among those controversies was the question of who was actually involved in drawing the new map. Rep. Todd Hunter (R), who sponsored the bill to implement the new map, admitted that Republicans in the state had been working with an outside law firm to help draw the map. 

Rosenthal and other Democrats questioned whether that included help from the National Republican Redistricting Trust and its leader, Adam Kincaid. 

Both Hunter and Vasut vehemently denied knowing if Kincaid was involved in the drawing of the new Texas map But Sen. Phil King, who chaired the Senate’s redistricting committee, confirmed this week that Kincaid, the national GOP’s top map-drawer, led the process. 

Democrats also raised concerns about the DOJ’s recent meddling in the redistricting saga. Last month, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to Abbott claiming that Texas impermissibly used race in drawing its current map, and urging the state to draw a new one. Abbott cited the letter in announcing the redraw. 

But DOJ’s claims contradict repeated statements by Texas officials, including some made under oath in court and at legislative hearings, that race wasn’t used in the process.

Texas Democrats last week urged the state to subpoena Dhillon to answer questions about her letter to Abbott.

“Why would we not wait until we can hear from the DOJ?” Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins (D) asked. “They’re the ones that wrote the letter. They started the fire. So wouldn’t it be common sense that they would come here and we could ask them questions?”