People of color made up the vast majority of Texas’ decade-long growth spurt, especially Latinos, a group that accounted for fully half of the state’s growth.
But Republicans control the state’s legislature. And the new political maps they’ve approved in recent days as part of the redistricting process dilute Latinos’ voting power, according to the first lawsuit over the maps.
The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the Western District of Texas, marks what’s likely to be a fierce struggle over political representation in the increasingly diverse state.
People of color made up 95% of Texas’s population growth since 2010. Of the state’s roughly 4 million new residents over the past decade, 1,980,796 were Hispanic, 613,092 were Asian, 557,887 were Black — and just 187,252 were white, the Texas Tribune noted.
That diverse growth is not being represented in newly-drawn political maps, several Latino civil and voting rights groups suing the state say. Rather, Texas Republicans drew up state House, state Senate, state Board of Education and U.S. congressional maps that preserved their power by “packing” certain districts with Latinos but keeping them out of the majority in new districts.
