The NAACP and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that a new congressional map passed in Texas violates the Voting Rights Act.
The lawsuit alleges that Texas racially gerrymandered their map in such a way that it blocks Black voters from being able to elect their picks for office.
Texas Republicans passed a new congressional map in the state Legislature this month, which could potentially give their party five pickup opportunities in the House ahead of 2026. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not signed the maps into law but is expected to do so soon.
Democrats have criticized Texas Republicans for making an already GOP-favored House map tilt further toward Republicans, arguing it breaks up communities of interest and that Republicans are bending a knee to President Trump and the White House over their push to do mid-decade redistricting.
“The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
“It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated,” he added. “The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, described the map as “intentionally harmful” and “discriminatory” in his own statement.
“Black and Brown voters in Texas deserve better. They are legally and constitutionally entitled to fair representation,” he said. “These maps do the opposite, and they must not stand.”
Republicans, however, have called Democrats hypocritical, noting that several of the states to which Texas Democrats fled during their quorum break were ones that have been gerrymandered.
They also point out that California Democrats’ push to put a new House map in front of voters this fall subverts the independent redistricting commission the state has in place to draw the maps once each decade. California Democrats say they are in favor of independent redistricting and see this as a temporary measure.
Several other Democratic-aligned and civil rights groups have also signaled they are ready to sue over the Texas House map as well.
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