Federal court considers lawsuit to toss North Texas Senate seat that splits Tarrant voters of color

Retiring Republican state Sen. Kel Seliger, who’s known to buck party leadership, offered testimony in a sworn court statement that Texas lawmakers violated federal voting rights law when drawing the new lines.that includes District 10 Democratic Sen. Beverly Powell and six other Tarrant County citizens contend the Senate plan intentionally discriminates against minority voters in the district.

The redrawing of District 10, led by GOP state Sen. Joan Huffman, cuts through areas of high-density minority populations and adds rural, mainly white-populated areas. Huffman repeatedly said she drew the maps“She cracked it in half,” Powell testified during the hearing. “It was intentional to add Anglo voters to [District 10].”

To account for population changes, Texas redefines its legislative districts by redrawing the maps every ten years, following the U.S. census. The most recent round was Republican-led. A three-judge panel that included Barack Obama appointee David C. Guaderrama, Ronald Reagan appointee Jerry E. Smith and Donald Trump appointee Jeffrey V. Brown heard the case.“Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee proceedings, and having read the prior federal court decision regarding [District 10], it was obvious to me that the renewed effort to dismantle [District 10] violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S.

Map challengers say the new District 10 increases its Anglo share by nearly 10%, shifting the district’s voting-age population from majority-minority to majority-Anglo and potentially securing Republicans’ grip on power for the next decade. “Partisan-shaded maps look very similar to race-shaded maps because Black and Hispanic voters are quite cohesive on voting for their candidate of choice,” testified Matthew Barreto, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

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