Texas Democrats head to Rainbow PUSH HQ to decry redistricting: 'This is our civil rights moment'

Texas Democrats who left their state in an attempt to block proposed new congressional maps joined Rainbow PUSH leaders Saturday morning to call for an even broader coalition to join them in denouncing the move by Texas Republicans.

Dozens of Texas Democrats left for Illinois on Sunday, as well as Massachusetts and New York, to deny Republicans a quorum needed during its special legislative session to approve new congressional maps they say will wipe minority-majority districts and disenfranchise Black voters.

Changes in the proposed maps would put Austin residents in the same district as rural Texans more than 300 miles away, while diluting Democratic strongholds in Dallas and Houston into neighboring Republican districts — both of which have constituencies made up of 22% and 24% Black residents, respectively, compared to the state average of 12%, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

It would also redraw the 35th congressional district, which was previously deemed discriminatory and unconstitutional by two panels of federal judges before the Supreme Court allowed it to stand in 2018.

“They want to wipe out two Black seats, and we won’t be able to recover from that,” Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones said at the news conference Saturday.

“They’re trying to destroy those seats in a way that hurts African Americans,” said Texas state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, added.

Though the group of Democrats said Monday they had already succeeded, considering the temporary stop as a victory, they said there was more work to be done regardless of whether or not they were able to stave off the redistricting efforts permanently.

Many of the legislators drew comparisons to the attempts to disenfranchise specifically Black voters as well as the leaders who stood up during the days of Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement.

“Because of their sacrifice and their struggle, here we are today as free people," said Texas state Rep. Ron Reynolds. "But there are some who want to roll back the clock. ... This is our civil rights moment. We're not going back."

The redistricting push also comes as Trump is seeking to exclude immigrants without legal status from the census despite the 14th Amendment, which says “the whole number of persons in each state” should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment, the process of allocating congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states based on population.

Any changes in the conduct of a national census would require alterations to the Census Act and approval from Congress, which has oversight responsibilities. While the Census Act permits a mid-decade census for distributing federal funding, it can’t be used for apportionment and must be done in a year ending in the number five.

Previous quorum breaks — including when Texas Democrats walked out in 2003 over a Republican redistricting effort — have failed as members slowly trickled back to the state for personal obligations or threat of fines.

On top of $500 per day fines, the lawmakers who left Texas also face lawsuits from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to return them to Texas, orders from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to state police to find and arrest them — though they have no jurisdiction outside the state — and Texas Sen. John Cornyn saying the FBI has agreed to track them.

This week, the Q Center hotel and convention complex in St. Charles, where the Texas Democrats are staying, had two bomb threats reported that were deemed unfounded.

Texas state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons said unity not just in Texas, but across the nation was key. The legislators called on Republicans who saw what was going on as wrong to stand with them.

“People need to understand Texas is the canary in the coal mine,” Simmons said. “We can’t do this alone. We have to do this together.”

Contributing: AP