ARLINGTON, Texas—On Monday, July 28, the Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas Organizing Project, and the Black Voters Matter Fund were among those rallying here the University of Texas campus right before a state hearing to discuss the Trump/Governor Abbott/Republican Party plan to gerrymander Texas U.S.House seats. The Republican lawmakers want to pick their voters to increase by five the Republican caucus in the House.
They are proposing a congressional map to drown out predominantly Black, Brown, and Democratic voter congressional districts throughout Texas. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, some of the seats that are being targeted are held by Jasmine Crockett (D) and Marc Veasey (D), two African-American members of the U.S. Congress.
What was significant about the rally was the unity of the labor movement and the civil rights movement, including the Texas AFL-CIO and groups like the Texas Organizing Project, the Sunrise Movement, and the well-known dynamic civil rights activist and pastor, Dr. Frederick Haynes of Dallas.
David Villalobos, of the Texas Organizing Project, said, “We are here today because Republicans are trying to silence Black, Latino, and young voices, but we will not be erased.
“We are here to say, you will not fix elections, because the math ain’t mathing…They have decided they are going to have representatives choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives…This isn’t a red state, it’s a voter-suppressed state,” said Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes.
Rev. Haynes stressed the need to show up at rallies and in the streets, mobilizing, organizing, and voting in order to fight back.
“You can count on us showing up to the polls, count on us mobilizing and organizing!” Haynes said.
Multiple speakers mentioned how Texas is already severely gerrymandered in favor of the Republican Party.
Alisa Simmons, a Tarrant County Commissioner, said the new maps “are racially gerrymandered maps. It is an attack on the voting strength of people of color. Let’s call it what it is: racism.”
In addition, prominent labor union activist Tevita ‘Uhatafe spoke on behalf of the labor movement and stressed how the Republican Party is hostile to workers’ rights. Uhatafe is the new principal officer of the Tarrant County Central Labor Council.
Rep. Marc Veasey, said conditions in the U.S. can absolutely get worse if we don’t fight this redistricting effort. “If you think what you have seen ICE doing is bad, you give this man more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and you give this man more unfettered power, you will see ICE do things that they have never done before!” Veasey said.
“This President is a power-hungry, corrupt creature in the White House.”
Veasey said fighting this redistricting effort must be the number one issue for every Democratic leaning group right now because Trump and the extreme right will “wipe out everything we’ve fought for.” Veasey said Trump and the Republicans are making this their number one effort, so everyone who wants to fight Trump must make fighting this racist redistricting their number one action item.
After the rally, hundreds packed the redistricting hearing to speak out against the Republican gerrymandering effort.
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