Rep. Jasmine Crockett Says Trump-Backed Texas Redistricting Is a Direct Hit on Black Voters

Texas Democrats are raising alarms over Governor Greg Abbott’s push to redraw the state’s congressional maps—a move they argue is designed to entrench Republican dominance in Washington and silence communities of color. The plan, set for debate in a special legislative session next week, follows a letter from Trump’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Harmeet Dhillon, who called four existing districts “unconstitutional ‘coalition districts’” and urged the removal of what she described as “race-based considerations.”

President Donald Trump has gone further, publicly demanding a “simple” redrawing that would give Republicans at least five more U.S. House seats, bolstering the GOP’s slim majority and advancing his second-term agenda.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, says the targets are clear: “We only have four seats that are represented by Black folk. They decided to attack three of the four seats that we have in the state,” pointing to districts linked to Reps. Al Green, Marc Veasey, the late Sylvester Turner, and Latina Rep. Sylvia Garcia. Crockett accused Republicans of “splintering communities of common interest” and diluting minority voices, citing Texas’s long history of racially discriminatory voting laws.

“Ever since we’ve had a Voting Rights Act, the courts have always found this state to be intentionally discriminatory,” she said, noting that 95% of Texas’s population growth has come from communities of color—yet they received “zero new seats.”

The fight is a repeat of the 2003 mid-decade gerrymandering battle, when Democrats fled the state to block a quorum. This year, Democratic lawmakers have once again left Texas to prevent the redistricting bill from moving forward.

On CNN, Abbott mocked them as “weaklings” and “anti-Texan.” Crockett fired back: “The only weakling in this equation is the governor himself. It’s not Texans that elected the governor to the governor’s mansion that asked him to do this. It is the criminal that is currently serving in the White House that begs for him to do this.”

Crockett also reminded Abbott that the Texas Constitution explicitly allows breaking quorum. “These folks that decided they were going to break quorum are more Texan and more American than the governor and the President himself.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledged that Democrats are already in court over the current maps and “will pursue all legal options,” calling Texas Republicans “political punks” serving Trump’s extreme agenda.

Link: The Grio