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A gerrymandered map proposed by the Texas GOP would kick firebrand Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett out of her own district and likely add more House seats to the Lone Star’s Republican delegation.
Last week, Texas House Republicans introduced a redistricting proposal that could net five new GOP seats. The draft congressional map, which is likely to change before approval by both state legislative chambers, aims to redraw district lines to include more Republican-leaning areas in Democratic strongholds like Dallas and Houston.
Crockett, who serves Texas’s 30th Congressional District, which represents a large part of Dallas, has called the redistricting effort “a power grab to silence voters.”
She has claims that before Republicans unveiled the map, she was asked to verify her address alongside other incumbent Democrat members of Congress.
The rare mid-decade redistricting effort may also force some Democratic lawmakers into primary battles against fellow incumbents as seats become more limited.
For example, if the map were adopted, Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who currently represents Texas’ 37th Congressional District in the Austin area, would be placed in the same district as Rep. Greg Casar, who serves the neighboring 35th District, also anchored in Austin.
Last week, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called fighting the proposed map an “all-hands-on-deck moment.”
“We will fight them politically. We will fight them governmentally. We will fight them in court. We will fight them in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the people of Texas and beyond,” Jeffries said last week during a press conference in Austin.
Jeffries said that while corporations and universities fall in line with Trump, “Texas Democrats will not bend the knee.”
Standing alongside Jeffries, Texas Democratic Rep. Lizzie Fletcher warned that redistricting efforts like those in the Lone Star State could spread nationwide as part of a broader push to bolster Republican power.
“People across the country are watching what we are doing in Texas,” Fletcher said.
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