Texas
Related: About this forumDemocrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher is about to find out how badly Texas Republicans want her out of Co
by Abby Livingston, Texas TribuneWASHINGTON Lizzie Pannill Fletcher's political career became something of a trophy to Washington Democrats in 2018 after she won the Houston-based 7th Congressional District long a bastion of Texas Republican leadership.
The seat was once held by the late President George H.W. Bush, and one of Fletcher's most prominent constituents is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. TX-7 was designed to be a safe Republican stronghold, but the 46-year-old former trial attorney snatched it away three years ago. And while many of her classmates from the 2018 Democratic wave lost reelection in 2020, she held on against a formidable Republican opponent.
Any day now, she'll find out how intent Texas Republicans are on taking the seat back.
The Texas Legislature is poised to unveil its proposed maps for new Texas Congressional districts, and some expect they'll redraw the 7th Congressional District in a way that dooms Fletcher's chances of winning there again.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/23/texas-congress-redistricting-fletcher/
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,523 posts)TexasTowelie
(111,938 posts)While he lives in a different district, he is close enough that he can get involved in elections.
I'm at Susan Collins concern level regarding the redistricting battles. Considering how gerrymandered the districts were after 2010 I thought that it couldn't get much worse. Lo and behold, Texas gains two representatives and the population growth is largely among POC.
There are nearly six seats from Texas that could flip from blue to red because of gerrymandering. That is enough seats that it could flip the House of Representatives to the GOP.
LetMyPeopleVote
(144,919 posts)Lizzie is a great litigator. I like her a great deal
As for being gerrymandered, there is one lawsuit already filed that has merit. https://www.democraticunderground.com/107856522 The Texas Constitution is a horribly written document that has some strong restrictions on government including a requirement that redistricting has to be done in a regular session. There is a former GOP Texas Supreme Court justice representing the Democrats in this case who believes in this case. The remedy is that the courts get to draw the district boundaries for 2022 and the Texas legis can draw more permanent boundaries in 2023
In addition, Marc Elias is standing by to sue as are Texas Civil Rights Project, the NAACP, MALDF and a couple other groups. The Texas primaries will not be in March next year due to this litigation
LetMyPeopleVote
(144,919 posts)I just got the maps and the GOP is packing Democrats into packed/safe districts. It appears that Lizzie's district was redrawn to be in a safe district https://dvr.capitol.texas.gov/Congress/14/PLANC2101
Anglo 27.3% 30.1%
Non-Anglo 72.7% 69.9%
Asian 21.5% 21.4%
Black 21.1% 19.8%
Hispanic 30.0% 28.3%
B+H 50.1% 47.3%
General Election 2020 2018
SSVR 14.3% 14.1%
Turnout 69.7% 55.4%