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Fort Worth Legislators React to Redistricting

The proposed Senate map has Democrats in Fort Worth and Austin upset.
Map courtesy Texas Legislative Council
The proposed Senate map has Democrats in Fort Worth and Austin upset.

The Senate redistricting committee met today to hear public testimony on a new proposed Senate map. The new boundaries will likely change the political makeup of several districts.

Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) argued that the new map breaks apart districts populated by minority voters and violates the Voting Rights Act. Davis said that a black voting block in southeast Fort Worth and Hispanic voters in the northern part of District 10 would be broken apart.

“It’s about whether people will lose their voice in this Texas Senate,” Davis said. "Why is their voice protected under the Voting Rights Act? Because historically the views of these people have been suppressed."

Representative Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) also testified against the way redistricting lines were drawn in the Fort Worth area.

“The retrogression that’s taken place in this map is absolutely clear,” Veasey said. “It is designed so that a white candidate can always prevail, and not just in the Southeast Fort Worth area but all of Tarrant County. the map is clearly designed to help white voters only and do absolutely nothing.  And when I mean nothing. I mean absolutely nothing for black voters what so ever."

For more on the ongoing redistricting process, check out the Texas Tribune’s interactive redistricting map, which compares proposed districts with voting results from the 2008 presidential race.