Borderland lawmakers speak on proposed Texas redistricting
Heriberto Perez
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Texas State Representative for District 77 Vince Perez held a news conference in El Paso today where he spoke against the Texas redistricting proposed by Republicans, which could impact El Paso County.
If passed, it could move Fort Bliss out of El Paso’s main congressional district, placing it in the district currently represented by U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales.
According to State Rep. Perez, this is how the congressional seats would look if the Texas redistricting is approved:
26 seats determined by Anglo voters (~70%)
8 seats by Hispanic voters (~20%)
2 seats by Black voters (5%)
0 seats by Asian voters (0%)
2 seats with a mixed composition (5%)
For State Rep. Perez, this is how the congressional map would look if it showed an equal representation reflected in the current diverse population in the state:
15 seats determined by majority-Anglo voters (40%)
15 seats by majority-Hispanic voters (40%)
5 seats by majority-Black voters (13%)
2 seats by majority-Asian voters (5%)
1 seat representing a diverse coalition of all groups (2%)
“The stark reality is this: In Texas, one Hispanic vote counts as merely one-third, and oneBlack vote counts as barely one-fifth of an Anglo vote,” said State Rep. Perez in a statement.
ABC-7 also spoke with the Chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, Michael Aboud, who said the County needed this redistricting many years ago.
“The way the state was redistricted was terrible because they gerrymandered so much of the state, they sat there and rigged it so that Texas would keep so many Democratic seats no matter what,” said Chairman Aboud. “That is not good for the people of Texas; the people deserve to have representatives that represent them, not ones that are rigged by a map because of the agreement between two parties.”
“For the Democrats to sit there and say this is racial, that is nonsense, that’s simply them trying to play the race card and they do that because the only thing they think of is race and how can they divide the American people,” Chairman Aboud added.
ABC-7 reached out to the office of Congressman Tony Gonzales to learn his thoughts on the proposed Texas redistricting, but they have not answered to our request at this time.
More updates in later newscasts.