Debate in the Texas House of Representatives kicked off Wednesday on the Republican-backed redistricting plan as Democratic lawmakers returned to the state after a fifteen-day protest that prevented the chamber from reaching a quorum.
Throughout August, national attention has centered on Texas’ plan to reconfigure its congressional districts. Some populous Democrat-led states like California and New York have even vowed to undertake their own redistricting efforts if Texas lawmakers approve the plan that is currently on the table
This week, the Maine Morning Star interviewed Attorney General Aaron Frey about Texas’ redistricting proposal.
During the interview, Attorney General Frey expressed concern over the impact that this move may have on the broader political landscape.
“I am lamenting what this might mean for how our politics will continue, in terms of people trying to do the one-upsmanship,” Frey told the outlet. “As much as it probably sounds like it’s a critique, it really is more of a concern about this being the evolution of where the politics is going.”
“It should be a concern for all of us about what this means for the next time that the next majority is in power,” said Frey, suggesting that his opposition to the Texas plan is not politically motivated.
“I am hoping that I would have just as much concern if California would have been the first state to say that they were going to do this as I have about Texas saying that they’re going to do this, even though it may be perfectly appropriate legally,” he said.
“If anything, it’s creating a system that is going to be more unable to meet what it is that, I think, Mainers and the American people are asking for,” Frey said.
Although many Democrat-led states are poised to pursue their own redistricting plans designed to counteract the political impact of the proposed Texas map, Maine does not appear to be one of them.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson from Gov. Janet Mills (D) office told the Portland Press Herald that she is not considering any such plans.
Similarly, the Speaker of the House told the outlet that the state’s redistricting process would not be conducive to any such alterations, despite expressing support for other states potentially doing so.
“I respect leaders in other states thinking about how to respond to an egregious power grab by President Trump and his pals in Texas, but Maine’s process, which is enshrined in the state constitution, just doesn’t provide that sort of flexibility for us to be responsive in that way,” said House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford).
Under the Maine Constitution, redistricting is only permitted once every ten years, and maps require approval from at least two-thirds of both chambers. In order to change this process, an amendment supported by a supermajority of lawmakers, as well as the Maine people, would be necessary.
Among the Democrat-led states that are prepared to launch countermeasures in response to Texas’ potential redistricting in addition to California and New York areNew Jersey, New Hampshire, and Maryland.
Although California’s congressional maps are typically prepared by an independent commission, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has said that he would ask voters to approve of new maps ahead of the November 2026 that would give Democrats an extra five seats, cancelling out the expected five-seat gain for Republicans as a result of the proposed changes in Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called the state’s Legislature in for a special session earlier this summer to address a number of policy objectives, including the redistricting plan.
In placing this issue on the special session agenda, Gov. Abbott cited a memo from the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) which indicated that four of the state’s districts were unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered.
The Texas lawmaker who sponsored the redistricting bill, however, has expressed political motivations for pursuing the implementation of a new map.
“Different from everyone else, I’m telling you, I’m not beating around the bush,” Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican lawmaker that introduced the redistricting bill, said. “We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.”
“Political performance does not guarantee electoral success — that’s up to the candidates,” Rep. Hunter continued. “But it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts.”
Although a 2019 Supreme Court ruling opened the door for partisan redistricting, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act forbids the creation of a map that diminishes voting power based on race.
It is on these grounds that some Texas Democrats have pushed back against the Republican proposal, suggesting that the map under consideration manipulates the concentration of certain voters based on their race in the name of reducing their electoral influence.
“Every citizen should have equal access to choose their representation, instead of crowding Black people to the point that all the Black people in the state only have two representatives, and all the Latinos in the state are crowded up to the extent that their voting power is diminished,” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas told state lawmakers during a hearing on the proposal.
Texas Republicans have pushed back on these accusations, however, pointing out that the proposed map would create one new majority Hispanic district and two new majority Black districts.
Due to the composition of the Texas Legislature, the proposed electoral maps are expected to eventually be advanced and approved.
