AUSTIN, Texas—Texas State House Democrats left the state Sunday to block the vote of a Trump-ordered Republican redistricting plan designed to steal five U.S. House seats in Texas for Republicans and drown out the voices of predominantly Black and brown voters.
The labor movement is giving the bolting lawmakers its full support, with the Texas AFL-CIO releasing a statement declaring its “full solidarity with this necessary quorum break and Texas House Democrats taking the fight to the rest of the country.”
Rick Levy, president of the state labor federation, said, “We need lawmakers at every level and in every state to fight to protect our rights, no matter what it takes.” Levy indicated that Texas “may be the beginning of this redistricting battle, but workers across this country will win the war.”
On Friday, Aug. 1, the Texas AFL-CIO and many Black and brown Democratic Party voices descended onto the capitol building in Austin to testify at the special session in the Texas Legislature.
U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett, Julie Johnson, and Marc Veasey sponsored buses to transport their constituents to Austin to offer their own opinions on the redistricting plan directly to the assembly. The church of civil rights activist and pastor Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes, Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, also sent a bus to Austin.
With the Republians’ new map, Democratic members of Congress Jasmine Crockett, Marc Veasey, and Julie Johnson no longer live in their districts.
Greg Casar, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and former labor organizer, was at Friday’s rally, along with Lloyd Doggett of the Progressive Caucus. Both represent Austin. In the new maps, Casar and Doggett will be pitted against one another in the election.
Jasmine Crockett, representative of predominantly African-American District 30 in Dallas, told media personality George Lee, Jr. (@theconsciouslee on Instagram):
“In the state of Texas, the largest ethnic group is Latinos, Latinos are 40% of the state. Anglos are 39% of the state. African Americans are somewhere between 11 and 13% of the state, and Asians are 5% of the state. With this math, somehow 60% of the seats that get to go D.C. belong to the 39%. If you’re Black in the state of Texas, then your vote is worth about one-fifth of what an Anglo’s vote is worth when it comes to these Congressional maps…(for) Latinos, your vote is worth one-third of an Anglo’s vote in Texas.”
This is reminiscent of the Constitution’s “three-fifths compromise,” when enslaved Africans counted as three-fifths of a person when counting the population for representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Added to the Constitution at its beginning in 1787, this maneuver enhanced the political power of the slave-owning Southern states and set the stage for the later Jim Crow era when African Americans couldn’t vote in Southern states but they counted for population.
Crockett and others, like Elie Mystal, have suggested that the Heritage Foundation and the Republican Party are working together on moving towards white minority rule.
Rep. Crockett said that this new redistricted map violates the Voting Rights Act.
Levy of the AFL-CIO said in his testimony:
“Somebody got a call from the president saying do my political bidding so he doesn’t have to face the voters for unpopular actions, like the largest transfer of wealth from working-class people to billionaires in the history of this country. This hearing, with two-days’ notice, one hearing in the middle of the workday, you’ve effectively shut the door on working people to participate.
“Your process shows that you don’t really care what we think. 99% of Texans won’t even know what happened here until they show up to the polls and find out they have a new member of Congress.”
The Texas Republicans’ scheme is sparking a counteroffensive on the Democratic side. On Monday morning, Aug. 4, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee in Washington issued a call to Democratic lawmakers nationwide to “pursue mid-cycle redistricting opportunities while focusing on winning battleground chambers and new majorities.”
The DLCC said it will not “sit back and allow Republicans to cheat the system to keep themselves in power.” It urged Democrats to keep all options on the table, including using their power to redistrict Congressional maps in states where they currently hold majorities.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
