Texas and the dispute over constituencies: that is behind it

With newly tailored constituencies, the Republicans in the US state of Texas want to strengthen their party at national level. After weeks of dispute, the Texas House of Representatives voted for a corresponding law. No democrat supported it. Now the Texas Senate has to agree before governor Greg Abbott – a Republican – can put it into force with his signature.

US President Donald Trump had urged his party to quickly advance the initiative. The new cuts should apply in the 2026 congress elections. The power struggle for constituency boundaries is likely to intensify with advances by both parties in other states. You have to know that now on the subject:

The US Congress in Washington consists of two chambers: Senate and House of Representatives. While each state sends two senators regardless of its size, the number of members of a state in the House of Representatives is based on the population. In total there are 435 seats. Every MP represents their own constituency.

After the census raised every ten years, the constituencies have to be re -tailored so that they comprise as many residents. In practice, however, parties often use this process to gain advantages – this is called “gerrymanening”. In Texas, this is now done outside the regular census, which is actually only due again in 2030.

This means the targeted cutting of constituencies to the advantage of your own party. Borders are laid in such a way that a party bundles as many of their own voices as possible and dismembered the opposite side. This can gain more seats, even if she no longer gets votes in the congress elections. Often, so bizarre -shaped constituencies are created that artificially cut down municipalities. The practice is named after Elbridge Gerry. In 1812, the former governor of Massachusetts blessed a particularly winding constituency that resembled a salamander. This is how an artificial word was created: the “gerry mander”.

Both Republicans and Democrats operate “gerrymandering”. The Supreme Court decided in 2019 that this practice was undemocratic, but could not be stopped by courts per se. However, restrictions still apply if minorities are systematically disadvantaged. Democrats are also accused of having designed cards in their favor. In the end, in this context, however, republican -ruled states were criticized: there, the voices of black and Latinos are said to have been weakened, as these groups vote rather democratically.

The aim of the Republicans is to secure their power in Washington. At the moment, they only have scarce majorities in both chambers of the US congress. Texas is one of the most populous states and sends 38 MPs to the House of Representatives – only more California has more. Even smaller shifts there can change the balance of power in the congress. With the advance in Texas, the Republicans hope up to five additional seats in the House of Representatives.

The vote was preceded by a violent argument: a number of democrats remained far from the Capitol in Austin and partly traveled to other states to block the quorum. They only returned under massive pressure. It is open whether there will be a complaint. However, the Republicans already have other states in mind.

The democrat Nicole Collier particularly emphasized with her protest. At first she had also left Texas in protest. After her return, she did not want to leave the parliament building for fear of repression, because Republican superiority in Texas decided that MPs were only allowed to leave the Capitol if they agreed to a three -week police scale. Collier didn’t feel like it. “I refuse to give up my dignity as a properly elected representative, just so that the Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police accompaniment,” she said in an interview with the.

You don’t want to put up with this and rely on countermeasures. In California, an initiative is already running to reorganize constituencies in favor of the Democrats. In November, citizens should vote on this. There are also similar considerations in other democratically ruled states. However, the rules are different everywhere.