(The Center Square) – The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled in favor of a group of voters in the Yakima Valley in a case concerning recently redrawn legislative boundaries in Washington state. The court said the new boundaries for the 15th Legislative District do not discriminate based on race.
This means Republican state Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco will have to move if she wants to run again in 2026 because a new map detailing the boundaries of Washington’s legislative districts has effectively drawn her out of the district.
“The district court’s thoughtful attention to the details of the maps, population and voter numbers, and viable alternatives does not furnish evidence of racial predominance. Instead, it confirms that race was not the predominant factor in shaping the map,” U.S. Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote in a 31-page ruling.
The redistricting case goes back to 2021, when the Washington State Redistricting Commission reorganized the district to include a Latino majority.
In 2022, Susan Soto Palmer sued the state, arguing that the 15th Legislative District map violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of Latino voters.
A U.S. District court judge later threw out the redraw and required the state commission to create new boundaries ahead of the 2024 legislative session. The redrawn map included changes to 13 other districts.
“The city of Yakima kind of feels like a segregated place. On the west side of Yakima, we have wealthier, whiter communities that have better infrastructure and resources. The east side, where Latinos and other people of color tend to live, people have less access to resources and worse infrastructure. In fact, some places in Yakima County don’t even have street signs,” Soto Palmer wrote in October 2023.
As previously reported by The Center Square, the basis of the legal claim was that the Washington State Redistricting Commission fractured the Yakima Valley’s Latino communities when the new boundaries were drawn.
Ironically, Torres, the first Latina senator elected to represent a central Washington district, noted that after the redistricting, Latinos lost representation in her district.
Many Republicans, including Torres, claimed it was an attempt by the Democratic Party to gain seats in the state Legislature.
“It remains clear that what is happening here is gerrymandering at its finest. The Latino community was significantly, negatively impacted: A district that was once 52% Latino is now at only 50%,” Torres noted in a Wednesday news release following the 9th Circuit Court’s ruling.
Torres spoke with The Center Square.
“What the plaintiff Soto Palmer didn’t like was that a Latina was elected, but it was the wrong Latina, so she wasn’t happy with that, so they took it back to the courts and asked them to redraw the lines,” Torres said.
The 9th Circuit Court found that Torres and others in the appeal had no standing because they did not show actual harm.
She explained she will have to move her primary residence next year to retain her seat in the 15th Legislative District.
“If I need to move, then I will have to move to be in the new 15th,” Torres said. “I’m willing to do it, especially because, you know, I think this whole gerrymandering issue, it needs to have a bigger spotlight on it, and I want to show them, ‘Hey, look, you can keep redistricting me out but I’m still here and I’m still going to fight for the constituents and be the bigger person because gerrymandering is – I don’t care who does it – it’s not right.’”
Torres said she and her team are considering the next steps following Wednesday’s legal blow. However, given recent gerrymandering issues in Texas and California, they hope the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.
“There’s still an opportunity for the Supreme Court to take it up, and I’m hoping that it will get a bigger spotlight,” Torres noted.
State Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, running for U.S. Congress in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, told The Center Square on Thursday that he also hopes the nation’s highest court will take up the gerrymandering issue.
“I fully expect that it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Braun said. “The Democrats are using the Federal Voting Rights Act not for the intention it was passed under, but strictly for political purposes to increase their majorities in Olympia in this case. It’s wrong. It’s frankly un-American, and we shouldn’t allow it to stand.”
