The Justice Department Is Suing Texas for Gerrymandered Maps

[CatWoman]

Months after Texas Republicans approved gerrymandered redistricting maps that diluted the voting power of communities of color, the Justice Department is suing the state for violating the Voting Rights Act.

As my colleague Ari Berman wrote, Texas’ new election maps increase the number of districts with white majorities—even though 95 percent of the state’s population growth in the last decade has come from communities of color.

This gerrymandering is a brazen attempt to cement Republican dominance in the state despite demographic change:

The maps consolidate white power as the white population is shrinking as a percentage of the state, and eliminate political competition at a time when longtime GOP strongholds are trending blue. The number of safe GOP seats would double in the new congressional maps, from 11 to 22, and the number of competitive districts would fall from 12 to just one. GOP candidates for Congress received 53 percent of the statewide vote in 2020, but are forecasted to control 65 percent of US House seats under the new map.

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2021/12/the-justice-department-is-suing-texas-for-gerrymandered-maps/

[UTUSN]

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