Texas Senator Zaffirini Questions Redistricting Sponsor Senator King on Map Decisions

Scrutiny of Redistricting Map

• 🎯 Senator Zaffirini questioned Senator Phil King, the sponsor of the new Congressional district maps, regarding their creation.
• ❓ Zaffirini pressed King on whether specific districts, like Senate District 9 and 35, were intended to be Hispanic majority districts.

Racially Polarized Voting Analysis

• 📊 Zaffirini inquired about Senator King's awareness of Racially Polarized Voting (RPV) analysis and whether map drawers were provided with such data.
• 🤷 King stated he is not a redistricting expert and relied on his legal counsel, who assured him all necessary steps were taken to ensure legal compliance and political performance.
• 🚫 King denied personal knowledge of whether RPV analysis was provided to map drawers or performed during special sessions.

District 9 and 35 Performance

• 📉 Zaffirini presented data indicating a majority of the Hispanic population in the new CD9 and CD35 preferred Democrats, citing specific voting percentages for Harris.
• ⚠️ King maintained that CD9 should perform competitively for Republicans and that CD35, as drawn, would lean Republican, without referencing racial data.

Central Texas Redistricting Changes

• 📍 Zaffirini questioned the purpose of changes to CD35, specifically removing areas like southeast Austin and nearby I-35 corridor cities, and adding others.
• ⚖️ King stated the purpose was to improve political performance for Republicans, ensure legality under the Voting Rights Act, and potentially improve compactness.
• 🤝 The ultimate result of changes in Central Texas was identified as pairing Representatives Greg Casar and Lloyd Dogget in a majority Anglo district, which King acknowledged was to create better performing districts for Republicans.

South Texas Redistricting Changes

• 🗺️ Zaffirini inquired about the purpose of increasing the Hispanic citizen voting age population in CD28 and separating Webb County from Bexar County.
• 📈 King reiterated that all changes were made to ensure legality, improve Republican performance, and enhance compactness, not for personal reasons.
• ❓ Regarding CD15, Zaffirini asked about replacing Kenedy County with more heavily Latino counties with less heavily Hispanic counties.
• ✅ King consistently stated the intent was to create a legal map that performed better for Republicans and improved compactness.