MAGA Is Livid Ted Cruz Accidentally Helped Block Texas Redistricting
Donald Trump’s major electoral setback in Texas is due, in large part, to Ted Cruz.
A three-judge panel ruled against the Lone Star State’s ruling charcuterie effort Tuesday, ordering Texas to return to its 2021 maps for the upcoming midterm elections. The decision was written by Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, whom Cruz recommended to the bench in 2019.
That realization angered some members of Trump’s base, who questioned how the Houston native could have recommended someone who would rule against the president’s agenda.
“Ted Cruz clearly missed Brown,” conservative political strategist Mike Davis said in a statement. Fox News opinion piece Wednesday.
Brown wrote in Tuesday’s ruling that “substantial evidence” proved Texas had “racially gerrymandered” its final districts.
Asset suggested in July, Texas could give Republicans five additional House seats by flipping a handful of blue districts next year via “a very simple redrawing.” The Justice Department then threatened legal action over the matter, claiming that at least four Texas congressional districts were “unconstitutional” because the presence of multiple racial groups had made whites the regional voting minority.
Redistricting is perfectly legal, as long as it complies with federal law. Trump’s directive for Texas forced the state to focus on race rather than politics, in defiance of state non-discrimination laws. Brown noted in the legal opinion that if the effort had been intended to thwart Democratic strongholds in the state, it would have also targeted “majority white Democratic” districts, but those were “conspicuously absent.”
Brown determined that returning to the 2021 map was a more adequate solution than giving Texas the opportunity to develop another plan, since not only was the 2021 iteration developed by the state legislature (as opposed to the state judiciary), but it has been used successfully in two previous legislative elections, as well as a current special election. The court decision effectively dashed Trump’s dream of reshaping Texas to help Washington Republicans.
Meanwhile, Cruz prepares the preparatory work to run for president in 2028, although it’s unclear who in the MAGA movement will rally to his side.
