Testimony for Texas House Redistricting Committee

The Texas Capitol

My initial public testimony on redistricting for the Texas House Redistricting Committee on September 18, 2021

Thank you, Chairman Hunter.  

As a resident of Austin and a constituent of Texas’ Tenth Congressional District I am very disappointed in the district that the Texas Legislature forced me into ten years ago.

Let me ask you two simple questions:

1.  Is the point of redistricting to put constituents into fair districts, taking into account data from the most recent census; grouping together like minded people?

and

2.   When we are redistricting, should we follow the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act?

If you answer “yes” to both of these questions then redistricting fairly should be a no brainer. Don’t gerrymander. Instead, let a non-partisan commission fairly draw the lines.

However, even though all of you probably answered “yes” to both of those questions, ten years ago, you did exactly the opposite.

Instead of using the census data to group like-minded communities together, you used the data to slice communities of color into districts that would render their votes almost worthless.

It was so outrageously egregious that a federal court ruled two of your “districts” as unconstitutional.

The Texas maps are unfair.

To give you a personal example.

●    My school, which is a little more than five minutes away, is not in district 10

●    Most of my friends do not live in district 10

●    My pediatrician is not in district 10

●    And a popular park minutes from my house is not in district ten

All of these are part of my community of interest. Communities of interest need to be represented by the same person.

In the last redistricting cycle, my community of interest was gerrymandered into three separate districts.

However, it is not too late to stop this from happening again. We have a once in a decade opportunity to fix this mess.

I know that deep down, all of you know that gerrymandering is wrong.

Please, let the countless hours of public testimony convince you that gerrymandering is not what Texans’ want and not what Texans need.

Gerrymandering negatively affects every Texan. Whether it is a rural farmer in a district that includes a busy downtown or vice versa, it is the same effect. Constituents do not get the representation they need and selfish politicians stay in power.

You can be remembered for standing up for Texans to make the right thing happen, or be remembered as the representative that failed everyone and kept in place an unfair system that keeps specific people in power but keeps others out.

I have one question for the committee. Why is gerrymandering good and how does it help Texans?

If nobody responds, then we will let the silence speak for itself.

Thank you.