Redistricting battle in Texas and California comes to a head : NPR

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, on the left, and the Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott both pushed new Congress cards for their states.

Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images; Brandon Bell / Getty images

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Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu via Getty Images; Brandon Bell / Getty images

California and Texas, the states with the two largest populations, are getting closer to restart their congress districts in a political fight launched by President Trump.

Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the plan for a new polling card that could give Democrats five additional seats in the congress. The legislators also approved the sending of a measure to voters in November to allow the State to bypass its commission for the redistribution of independent citizens.

The legislators of the two states seek to add seats of the American chamber for their respective parties, after Trump, who wanted to maintain the vast majority of the GOP in the Chamber, pushed the Texas legislator to redirect and to help the Republicans in the mid-term elections of 2026.

The Texas Republicans who designed their rare Rediscuss plan of mid-December were clear about their intentions.

“I want everyone to know,” said state representative Todd Hunter, sponsor of the redistribution bill to his colleagues this week. “The underlying objective of this plan is simple: to improve republican political performance.”

Trump praised the progress of the bill, saying that “Texas never lets us fall”. GOP governor Greg Abbott, a close ally of Trump, said that he would sign the measure, but the Democrats threatened to challenge the new card in court.

Rediscovery is generally carried out after the national census at the start of each decade, and how voters are grouped in congress districts can be essential to determine who wins the seats.

Abbott put a redrawor proposed on the agenda of the legislature last month when Trump called for more republican districts in Texas. The State currently has 38 seats in the House – 25 detained by the Republicans, 13 by the Democrats.

The attention then turned to California, where Newsom, a democrat, sought to counter the redrawn in Texas. However, voters must weigh to bypass the independent commission for redistribution of state citizens.

Debate in California

Newsom argued that Californian Democrats had to “fight fire with fire”.

“It is not politics as usual,” said Anamarie Avila Farias, member of the Democratic Assembly, during a debate on the map. “This is an emergency for our state. It is an emergency for our country. It is an emergency for democracy.”

“You are advancing to fight fire with fire, what happens? You burn everything. In this case, this affects our most fundamental American principle. Representation,” said the chief of the republican minority James Gallagher during the same debate. “Now he pushes this redistribution plan, this Gavinmander, illegally, against the Constitution.”

The Democrats of the Legislative Assembly said that by sending the final decision to the voters, they made their proposal more transparent.

“The only argument here to which [Republicans] Can not refute and can never refute, is that the ultimate decision here is based on the inhabitants of the State of California, “said Jesse Gabriel of the Democratic Assembly of Los Angeles.” Residents of the State of California will be able to decide what they want to do at this time pivot in history. “”

The White House has asked the Republicans of other states to consider rediscovering in their favor.

In Texas, the Democrats broke the quorum to disrupt the plans of the Republicans

The representative of the State of Texas, Todd Hunter, before right, answers questions during the debate on a map of the American congress redesigned during a special legislative session on Wednesday in Austin.

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Eric Gay / AP

The adoption of the new Texas card would take place after the return of the Democrats who had left the State to block the presence of a quorum which would allow a vote. Abbott and other Texas leaders had threatened them with moving and arrest.

After two weeks, enough democrats returned to allow a quorum on Monday. Democratic leaders said they were coming back because California had assumed the fight and that they had missed the stopwatch during a special session – only to see Abbott immediately start another.

“We return to Texas more dangerous for the plans of the Republicans than when we left,” said the head of the Caucus Democrati de la Chambre on Monday, Gene Wu. “Our return allows us to build the legal file necessary to overcome this racist card before the courts, to bring our message to the communities of the State and the country and to inspire legislators through the country how state. “

Opponents of the new card say that it weakens the votes of elected black and Latin democrats by putting them in new districts or by moving more conservative white voters in their own. This could lead to certain democratic members of the congress against each other.

The Republicans note that the card increases the presence of Latin voting in some districts and say that more of them vote republican. The supporters of the redistribution recognize that it was based on “political performance” in the previous elections.

Some states prohibit partisan gerrymandering, the process of drawing districts to promote a political party. Texas does not do so. But gerrymandering for the partisan advantages can sometimes ride an illegal racial gerrymandering, which could soon be a problem in court for Texas.

Michael O. Adams, professor of political science at the Texas Southern University and expert in elections and redistribution, examined the new Houston card and said: “This is a modern example of retrogression: packaging, cracking, carefully dilute the emerging color coalitions.”

With reports by Acacia Squires of NPR.