Rep. Greg Casar on how Texas redistricting plan affects voters : NPR

The representative Greg Casar (D-TX) talks about the interference of the government of Elon Musk at a press conference at the American Capitol in Washington, DC.

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The Plan of the Texas Republicans to carve out five new Congress districts which lean the GOP threaten the “millions of voting rights of the Texans”, warns the Democrat representative Greg Casar.

“By merging my district, here in the Austin region, with an adjacent district, Trump and the Texas Republicans are trying to silence the votes of my voters and bring out the congress,” said Casar, who represents a strongly Latin and the working class of Austin, said Casar Morning edition. “But it is not only me. It is a violation of the law on voting rights that tries to dilute the votes of color voters.”

He added: “If Trump is able to do it here in Austin, it is a threat across America.”

More than 50 Democratic legislators in Texas left the State and broke the quorum during the special 30-day state session on Sunday, with the aim of blocking the adoption of a new redistribution card which would make President Trump’s desire to add five other seats from the Republican Congress to the Chamber of the United States.

The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, filed an emergency request on Tuesday at the Supreme Court of Texas, requesting the dismissal of the representative of the State Gene Wu, a Democrat of Houston, of his functions. He referred to Wu, president of the House Democratic Caucus, the “leader” of the quorum break. The president of the Dustin Burrows chamber gave democratic legislators who left the state until Friday to return to the House.

The special session, called to consider the proposed card, among other specific agenda articles, should end on August 19. But Abbott has the power to call special sessions at any time, in perpetuity.

Although Gerrymandering has been part of American policy for hundreds of years, including in democratic states, Casar says that what’s going on is Texas is different because the card came “directly from Mar-A-Lago” and was not drawn by the elected officials of Texas.

“This card was drawn by the aid of the president and delivered to the Republicans of Texas to be pushed into the throat of everyone here,” he said.

In a declaration sent by email, the White House press office said Morning edition These White House staff did not draw cards and called Casar’s claims “categorically false”.

NPR asked Casar clarification on its declaration. He said by e-mail: “These cards were not drawn by the Texans in a significant sense, and the idea that the Republicans of Texas act as something other than puppets for Trump is laughable.”

Leila Fadel of NPR spoke with Casar of the Rediscuss plan of the Republicans of Texas and the way in which the Democrats, in the State and across the country, plan to respond if the legislature of the State transmits the new map of the Congress.

The following interview was modified for duration and clarity.

Strengths of the interview

Leila Fadel: If this new card comes into force, could that mean that you lose your seat?

Rep. Greg Casar: This redistribution plan is more than any particular member of the congress. It is a threat to the millions of Texans’ voting rights. But here in Austin, I represent a strongly Latin and heavily workers’ seat. This means that when Donald Trump sends his horrible ice raids to separate families, I speak. When billionaires bathe people in the working class, I speak. And Donald Trump does not want a voice like mine at Congress. And therefore by merging my district, here in the Austin region, with a neighboring district, Trump and the Texas Republicans try to silence the votes of my voters and bring the congress out. But it’s not just for me. It is a violation of the law on voting rights. This tries to dilute the voices of colored voters. And if Trump is able to do it here in Austin, it is a threat across America.

Fadel: You have described this as an abolition of illegal voters and a violation of the law on voting rights. The Republicans say: “No, it’s a question of partisanry, politics”. The Supreme Court specifically declared that it was in fact legal to redraw the card according to this type of partisanary. So if you could explain, how does it violate the law?

Casar: Take a look at how the Republicans under the leaders of Donald Trump are trying to change this card in Texas. They move 10 million people in new districts in the middle of the decade at a time when you would normally never do it. And out of these 10 million people, two thirds of them are people of color. They therefore get rid of the districts of Hispanic opportunities in the Houston region. There will be no more districts of Hispanic opportunities in all Dallas, Fort Worth or in the Austin region, in a state where the largest racial group is the Latinos. In the end, what we see is that Donald Trump wants to have no chance of responsibility for the House of Representatives. He does not intend to win the next mid-term elections. So he wants to have them before anyone who had the chance to vote. And the way he does so is in violation of the law on voting rights, in violation of what Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement worked here in Texas and across the South.

Fadel: Democratic governors warn if Texas does – and it is likely that they will adopt this Congress card, because it does not seem that Democrats will be able to stop it – so they will also do it. If it is really a threat to democracy, and the country is about to enter into a war of redistribution between the two parties, will the Democrats then make us harm American democracy and to divide this country more?

Casar: Let’s be clear: Gerrymandering is terrible and should be prohibited. And each Democrat in Congress is currently a sponsor of the John Lewis voting rights to prohibit National Gerrymandering. But what we have to be really concerned and what I am sick and tired are the Democrats who play according to a set of rules, then the Republicans Gerrymandering, but they want. This is why I think it’s true that Governor Kathy Hochul [D-N.Y. and] Governor Gavin Newsom [D-Calif.] And others say they could redirect in retaliation. In this way, republican governors like Abbott can know that there will be a real cost to break their rules. I think California should have an independent redistribution when Texas does. Florida should pass the independent redistribution in this way, we can have it in New York. We should have the independent national redistribution and the prohibition of Gerrymandering, and not to allow governors like Greg Abbott to break all the rules while the Democrats play the Boy Scout and Scout.

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