Texas State Senate Begins Debate On Congressional Redistricting

5 months ago

During debate in the Texas State Senate, Republican State Sen. Phil King began consideration of the GOP's Congressional redistricting legislation on the floor.

Transcript

00:00Senator King, you're recognized for a motion to spend the regular order of business on House Bill 4.

00:08Thank you, Mr. President, members.

00:10I do make that motion and want to lay out with some opening remarks here before questions,

00:20but I also, when I was listening to Pastor Scott Wall's prayer,

00:28he was talking about the fruit of the Spirit, and if I remember right from Galatians,

00:32that's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

00:38And I asked him if maybe we could add expedition to that,

00:41knowing that this is going to be kind of a long day, but apparently you can't add to Scripture,

00:45so that's not going to work.

00:46But anyway, if I can, if you wouldn't mind giving me just a couple of minutes to lay out some things

00:52to kind of remind us what we've got in front of us today.

00:56But just by way of introduction, when I began this process, I had two goals in mind.

01:04The first goal was for the map, which is now HB4 that's before us,

01:10for the map to be legal in all respects.

01:13That was the first goal.

01:15And the second one was that it would perform better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas.

01:23However, as we heard public testimony through, I guess, the seven total hearings we had,

01:33six with testimony, there were numerous citizens and office holders that voiced concerns over the compactness of some districts.

01:44Compactness, as you know, refers to a principle requiring districts to be where they can be,

01:50drawn in geographically tight shapes, trying to avoid irregularities when possible.

01:59And so since that was mentioned so many times during testimony,

02:02I ended up adding a third goal for today's map,

02:07and that would be that it would also improve compactness for the congressional districts in our state.

02:16Let me just talk a little bit about that first goal of the map being legal.

02:22With regard to legality, and we've discussed this before when we did HB4 last special,

02:29the legislature can choose to redistrict at any time,

02:34including during special sessions and even during mid-decade.

02:41Courts have well recognized this broad authority.

02:45Therefore, it is perfectly legal for us to have HB4 before us today in this second called special session.

02:56Further, another big step in legal compliance is the one-person, one-vote standard.

03:06The U.S. Constitution requires that congressional districts be drawn with population as close to equal as possible

03:15to achieve the one-person, one-vote standard.

03:18And that makes the ideal district for us.

03:23When you divide the 2020 census by the number of congressional members we have,

03:28it comes out to 766,987.

03:34And that's our target population for each district.

03:38HB4, that's before us today, also meets this one-person, one-vote standard.

03:46Now, beyond this, beyond the fact that we can do redistricting at this term of the redistricting cycle

03:58and beyond the fact that we need to have equal population for one-person, one-vote,

04:04beyond this, the area of redistricting law is very robust and gets very complex very quickly.

04:13Therefore, what I've done, because I'm not an expert, I'm an attorney, but I'm certainly not a redistricting attorney,

04:20but I have relied on legal counsel throughout this process.

04:24And I have been fully assured by that counsel that HB4 complies with all applicable law.

04:34And the House counsel has come to the same conclusion.

04:38I haven't talked to them directly, but our counsel has conferred with theirs.

04:45So all that said, members, as we're here today for however many hours we're here,

04:52I want you to know that I'll do my very best to answer your questions.

04:57And I know a number of them are going to be about legal matters.

05:00But I would also ask that you please remember that we are not in a courtroom today.

05:07This is not a courtroom, and I'm not under deposition.

05:11Again, I'll do my best to answer your questions,

05:15but I don't want us to get into a legal debate over nuances.

05:23That's not our job.

05:24Courts take pages and pages just to talk about some of the definitions that apply to redistricting.

05:33And that's just not what we're here for today.

05:35I'll do my best, but please remember we're not in a courtroom,

05:40and I'm not under a deposition today.

05:43So that's what I'd like to say about the legality of this map.

05:47Next, shifting to that second goal I mentioned of partisan performance,

05:51and that's what really everybody wants to talk about.

05:53And HB4, I believe, should elect more Republicans to the U.S. Congress.

06:00But I'm here to tell you there are no guarantees.

06:04There are competitive districts in here now, more competitive than the current map,

06:10and I have no idea who's going to run for what office.

06:14And I have no idea which incumbents may decide to stay or leave

06:17or if they'll decide to run for different districts.

06:20I just don't know.

06:21I believe this map is more competitive, but there are no guarantees that it elects more Republicans.

06:29I also want you to know, and I can't emphasize this enough,

06:35that I have not reviewed any racial data.

06:39In contrast to the complications that are involved with race-based redistricting,

06:49political performance is really a pretty easy map to draw,

06:54and it's absolutely permissible as a basis for drawing electoral districts.

07:00And this map is drawn based on political performance.

07:05I have not looked at any race data.

07:10Now, regarding the district lines in HB4,

07:13I will tell you that nearly every one of the 38 Texas congressional districts' boundaries are modified.

07:23But they are modified, for the most part, with a few exceptions, in very minor ways.

07:32The most significant changes affect five districts,

07:37and I do believe those districts, due to the changes,

07:40will now lean Republican in political performance.

07:44Those five districts that now will lean Republican in political performance are CD9 Houston,

07:54CD28 in the RGV,

07:58CD32 in Dallas,

08:01CD34 in Coastal and South Texas,

08:05and CD35 in San Antonio.

08:14I'll be happy to go into detail on those districts later, if anyone would like to.

08:37So I do believe that the map is legal.

08:40That's the first goal.

08:40I do believe it performs better for Republicans,

08:43which was the second goal.

08:44And the third one,

08:45which I mentioned didn't come up until we went through hearings,

08:48and we started listening to people,

08:50is the issue of compactness.

08:52As I mentioned earlier,

08:54it was developed from these repeated comments in public testimony.

08:59In HB4,

09:01which I believe we have made some significant improvements,

09:05the most improved district,

09:08in terms of compactness,

09:09is CD35,

09:11and that's under both the

09:13REOC and the

09:15Paulsby Popper measures of compactness,

09:18and those are formulas that are used

09:21in courtrooms across the United States

09:24to measure compactness.

09:28The most improved district under those measures is CD35.

09:31The second most improved district would be CD29.

09:36And also, CD9 is substantially improved under those measures.

09:43So, in summary,

09:53I believe HB4 meets

09:55the critically important goals of legality,

10:01of political performance for Republicans,

10:04and of improved compactness.

10:07And that's why I believe it supports or deserves and merits our support.

10:17I will make one final note.

10:20HB4, in addition to those three goals,

10:23also has the added benefit of fixing a couple of concerns

10:28that were raised by our members,

10:30and actually brought up in testimony from the El Paso area.

10:37Senator Blanco had mentioned concerns over Fort Bliss,

10:41having been taken out in the previous map out of the CD16 in El Paso.

10:49There were also witnesses that testified

10:51when we had our West Texas-focused hearing,

10:54witnesses from El Paso that brought that up as well.

10:58And so, in response,

11:01Fort Bliss has been moved back,

11:03the critical part of it that they were concerned about,

11:05into CD16.

11:07And I'm glad we were able to help

11:08Senator Blanco and his constituents in that regard.

11:13Also, Senator Hall had raised concerns

11:17about Navarro County being divided for the first time.

11:21And the House actually fixed that

11:24as it was going through their process.

11:28So, I'm glad we were able to make

11:29a couple of accommodations there.

11:32And with that, again,

11:33I would move to suspend the regular order of business.

Texas State Senate Begins Debate On Congressional Redistricting

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