The plot against democracy: how Texas Republicans plan to steal power from minority voters

[MissMillie]

Republicans know how advantageous extreme gerrymandering can be. In 2011, Republicans undertook an unprecedented effort to use the redistricting process to their advantage, redrawing district lines in such a way that virtually guaranteed re-election across the country. It helped them hold majorities in state legislatures and the US Congress for much of the decade.

Republicans are once again poised to dominate the process, but there are even fewer protections in place than in the past. In 2019, the supreme court said for the first time that there were no federal limits on how far politicians could go to draw districts to their benefit. And for the first time since 1965, states with a history of voting discrimination won’t have to get their district approved by the federal government before they go into effect to ensure they don’t discriminate against minority voters. That could make a huge difference in Texas, where the state has drawn districts that violate the Voting Rights Act in every decade since the law was enacted.

Republicans will have to make a series of choices about which districts they want to shore up and which they will leave competitive. Each time they move a line, it has a ripple effect on what districts look like elsewhere in the state. The problem for Republicans is that they are running out of Republican voters to group into districts, said Mustafa Tameez, a Democratic strategist in the state.

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