Holder: Texas crucial in coming fight
Texas is “ground zero” in a national effort launching Saturday to ensure that every American’s vote counts in upcoming elections, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in Houston this week.
Holder, who led the Justice Department from 2009 to 2015 under President Barack Obama, is leading a project called “All on the Line” ahead of the 2020 Census, focusing on a fight against gerrymandering expected with the redistricting process the following year.
The campaign is kicking off with house parties around the country that will synchronize at 4:30 pm Eastern time Saturday with a Facebook Live event featuring Holder.
“Texas is a critical state… it’s among the most gerrymandered states in the country. To be successful in the efforts we are going to be doing nationwide, we have to be successful here in Texas,” Holder told the Chronicle on Wednesday during a visit to Houston to meet with several youth organizations.
Texas “is ground zero for the work we are doing, which is why we are here now” ahead of the kickoff, he said.
Holder, the chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said Obama is deeply involved in the campaign. Obama “has said that this is the
chief political involvement of his post-presidency, this whole effort of the NDRC,” Holder said.
The meeting in Houston was a small gathering that allowed for a dynamic conversation between Holder and leaders of organizations that helped to turn out voters in the midterm elections last year. Representatives of the Texas Organizing Project, the Texas Civil Rights Project, MOVE Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Houston in Action, and Battleground Texas were among those present.
Jolt, a youth organization that organized the Houston gathering, will launch “a major campaign with two different approaches,” said Amanda Rocha, the organization’s leader in Houston. One will be an online initiative focused on the importance of being counted in the Census, while the other will be “a door to door canvassing, helping people understand what’s at stake and addressing their concerns,” she said.
Holder said it can be difficult to engage people on issues like redistricting and gerrymandering, which might sound “kind of wonky, kind of ethereal.”
“Well, if you care about a woman’s right to choose, if you care about voter suppression,
“Texas is a critical state … it’s among the most gerrymandered states in the country. To be successful in the efforts we are going to be doing nationwide, we have to be successful here in Texas.”
Eric Holder, former U.S. attorney general
if you care about criminal justice reform, if you care about climate, if you care about health care, the expansion of Medicaid, all of these things are determined at the state level and by these gerrymandered state legislators,” Holder said.
‘Fair process’
Gerrymandering is a tactic used by state legislators to draw the lines of electoral districts in a way that provides their party an unfair advantage.
Holder said a redistricting process should reflect the composition of the people in the areas drawn fairly, informed by the census results. But parties sometimes draw strangely shaped lines to guarantee dominance in their district, based, for example, on its racial composition as a predictor of voting patterns.
“We are trying to break up this whole gerrymandering. We want to make sure that, come 2021, we have a fair process,’ said Holder.
The purpose of the campaign is “not gerrymandering for Democrats, I want to make that very clear,” he said. “If we make this a fair fight between conservative Republicans, Democrats, progressives, Democrats and progressives will do just fine.”
Latino voters in particular have struggled to secure a fair redistricting plan in Texas in every cycle, said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which has litigated the issue.
Hispanics represent almost 40 percent of the state population, and higher in cities like Houston. Although the question of how to represent the Latino vote consistently comes at the top of political agendas, “each time we end up disappointed because Texas draws the line in a discriminatory way,” Perales said.
Although gerrymandering has given an advantage to Republicans in Texas and other states, both parties have engaged in the practice.
“Democrats do not have clean hands,” said Artemio “Temo” Muñiz, chairman of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans. “They have targeted conservative and Hispanic Republicans in the redrawing of districts as well, and they have even said that we (Republicans) are not the right kind of Hispanics.”
Citizenship question
One of the advocates’ concerns has been the attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 census. Litigation on the issue is under way.
The administration argues that including the citizenship question, which hasn’t been asked in the census in almost 70 years, will help enforce voting rights more effectively. Opponents say the questioin will suppress participation, particularly in households with people of mixed immigration and citizenship statuses.
The census count has far-reaching implications. It serves as the basis to allocate around $675 billion in federal funding to states, according to local population compositions and targeted communities for programs ranging from health or education to safety.