Lawmakers have heard near-universal opposition to redrawing congressional district lines to favor Republicans.
By Philip Jankowski
Austin Bureau Correspondent
ARLINGTON — In a public hearing that oftentimes resembled a political rally, residents from across North Texas on Monday voiced their discontent with the Republican-led effort to redraw Texas’ congressional districts.
A crowd of more than 450 packed the Rosebud at the University of Texas at Arlington while hundreds more waited outside. The crowd cheered and clapped, booed and shouted “Amen” when prompted as lawmakers heard near-universal opposition to the redistricting.
“This is wrong, you know it’s wrong. In your heart, you know it’s wrong,” said Samuel Garcia of Abilene.
President Donald Trump has called on Texas lawmakers to redraw congressional districts in hopes of flipping as many as five districts from Democratic control to Republican, an effort to protect a thin GOP majority in the U.S. House of Representatives during the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
Gov. Greg Abbott placed redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the Legislature. While the state’s response to the Hill Country floods was named as the top priority for lawmakers’ limited 30-day session, redistricting has come to dominate the political conversation.
Abbott relied on a July 7 letter from the Justice Department as justification for placing redistricting on the agenda. Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate are hoping to hear from the Justice Department attorney who drafted the letter, though House redistricting committee chairman state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, said he has yet to get in touch with the lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon.
“I have not received a formal response,” Vasut said. “I received an out-of-office notification.”
Lawmakers on the Senate’s redistricting committee continued to mull whether to subpoena Dhillon. The Senate’s redistricting committee also met Monday in Austin to hear virtual testimony on redistricting.
Dhillon’s letter targeted four districts — three in Houston and one in North Texas — that are illegal because they are composed of a coalition of nonwhite people that make up a majority of their populations. There have been concerns that Dhillon’s reasoning incorrectly interprets a court ruling related to a recent Galveston redistricting lawsuit.
The Justice Department has refused to comment on those concerns.
The Dallas-Fort Worth district targeted by the Justice Department snakes through Dallas and Tarrant counties, creating a district in which roughly 87% of residents are people of color, according to state records.
It is represented by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. Veasey was joined by U.S. Reps. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, and Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who addressed the House committee Monday in Arlington.
“Trump has drawn a line in the sand, and it’s time for everybody that believes that what he is doing is wrong to stand up and fight and speak out against this redistricting,” Veasey said at a rally before the hearing.
Since late last week, House lawmakers have heard a chorus of input against the redistricting effort. Lawmakers have been criticized for holding the hearings before any official congressional maps have been presented and labeled eager sycophants for Trump.
“You’re shameless, power-hungry bootlickers for Trump,” Fort Worth resident Mendi Tackett told the committee.
At Monday’s rally, Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whose county commission precinct was redrawn by the commission’s Republican majority in June over her objections, said Tarrant County was Republicans’ “proving ground” for congressional redistricting.
“I’m so glad to see all of you here, right here, in the newly redistricted Precinct 2,” Simmons said. “They jacked with my … seat, OK, and I’m not happy about it.”
House lawmakers did hear what appeared to be the first person to testify in favor of the redistricting plans Monday. That input came from Rich Stoglin, president of the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County.
“As a Black American, Afghanistan veteran, a retired department head of the U.S. Department of Justice, I strongly support the Republican redistricting,” Stoglin said over a cascade of boos.
Philip Jankowski has covered government, politics and criminal justice in Texas for 17 years. He previously worked for the Austin American-Statesman, the Killeen Daily Herald and the Taylor Press. Philip is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
