ARLINGTON — In searing heat, several hundred people rallied and chanted on the University of Texas at Arlington campus Monday afternoon ahead of Texas House hearing on Gov. Greg Abbott’s call to redistrict the state’s congressional district boundaries.
The House is holding regional meetings on the Republican effort for a mid-decade redistricting that is being conducted at the urging of President Donald Trump, who wants the state Legislature to flip as many as five of Texas’ seats in Congress to Republican from Democrat.
Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, riled up the crowd ahead of the committee meeting, urging attendees to organize in opposition to the redistricting effort.
“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.
Political Points
Veasey’s district is one of four targeted in a recent Justice Department letter Abbott cited as the reason he placed redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the Legislature. His district stretches through Dallas and Tarrant counties.
Related:Texas House to hold redistricting hearing at the University of Texas at ArlingtonRelated:Texas redistricting will spark brutal fight that could spread across nation
While the state’s response the the Hill Country floods was named as the top priority for lawmakers’ limited 30-day session, redistricting has come to dominate the political conversation.
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 two,” Simmons said. “They jacked with my … seat, OK, and I’m not happy about it.”
At public hearings, lawmakers have heard near-universal opposition to the plan. More than 700 people signed up to testify at a hearing Saturday at the University of Houston.
Lawmakers cut off testimony after five hours in Houston. They will likely do the same at Monday’s hearing, which began at 5 p.m. at the E.H. Hereford University Center’s Rosebud Theatre at 300 West 1st Street in Arlington.
The meeting will be live-streamed.
This is a developing story.