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Folks, “President Trump sees the writing on the wall, and the American people are very unhappy with what's going on right now,” says Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NDRC, in response to the Trump-backed scheme to sway the midterm elections. “We're looking ahead to what could be a real wave for Democrats, and they're trying to stop that from happening by securing their power before we even get to the elections.” She’s right. Donald Trump has asked Texas conservatives to draw a map that would give the GOP five more congressional seats — a brazen attempt to silence the voices of Texas voters who are rightfully angry about Republicans’ extreme MAGA agenda. They know they can’t win fairly, so they’re pushing to hold on to power by gerrymandering. When Republican extremists, let alone the President of the United States, try to gerrymander maps, we have to be prepared to fight back. That’s why the NDRC is building up our emergency response efforts, to plan for rapid response and mobilization against late-breaking gerrymanders and attacks on free and fair elections. Here’s a breakdown of how we got here: First, following the 2020 Census, Texas was the only state to gain two congressional seats due to significant population growth. The census data also showed that 95% of the state’s population growth came from communities of color. Despite this, in 2021, the state of Texas enacted a congressional map that reduced the number of districts where voters of color have a fair chance to elect candidates of their choice and increased the number of majority-white districts — blatantly ignoring concerned community members voicing their opposition. Then, immediately after this map was enacted, a lawsuit was filed challenging the map for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Now, amidst the ongoing case, Donald Trump and his administration are pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the maps, going as far as to urge a “ruthless” gerrymander in the process. And, Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session of the Texas Legislature to expedite the passage of an unfair and potentially shady map as soon as possible. All the while, Texas’s current congressional map is already being sued for violating the Voting Rights Act because it diminishes the voting power of the state’s fast-growing Latino population. Let’s be clear: Texas voters deserve more. Voters across the entire country deserve more. Every single American deserves fair maps that truly represent us and our beliefs. What we don’t deserve is radical Republicans attempting to dilute our voting power just because they can’t win without cheating. The fair maps movement has helped to expose and dismantle decades of gerrymandering efforts by Republicans in several states, directly holding Republicans accountable for their attempts to undermine the voting rights of the people. Thanks for being a part of this critical work. — NDRC HQ
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