Partisan battle brews as Texas Senate redistricting committee advances new congressional map

Legislative showdown as Texas committee votes new map

The Texas Senate redistricting committee has approved the Republican-proposed congressional map on a party-line vote. The full Senate is expected to vote on the map as early as next week.

While things remain stalled in the Texas house, the Senate redistricting committee approved the Republicans’ proposed congressional map. 

This was approved on a party-line vote and while the house is stalled, the full senate will vote on the map as early as next week. 

What they're saying:

"Time will tell if this map will elect more or less people of color," said District 10 Senator Phil King.

Race and partisanship are still at the center of the redistricting debate as the Texas Senate moves toward a full vote.

Thursday’s hearing started with fireworks when Republican Senator Bryan Hughes called out Democratic states for their gerrymandered maps, states like Illinois, where some of the absent Texas Democrats are staging their protest.

"We are Texans. I really don’t give a (expletive) what other states. I just care about Texas," said Senator Borris Miles. 

Senator Borris Miles

"If leaders in other states are going to criticize Texas and hypocritically criticize us for what we are doing, a little context is needed," said Senator Bryan Hughes.

Senator Bryan Hughes

One Democrat leader who left the state said the move is provided for in Texas' governing documents. 

"Quorum break is actually a tool that the founding fathers of the Texas constitution put in so that the minority party, since we do not have a filibuster, we have the quorum break and that's the tool that we're using," said Rep. Miheala Plesa.

Legal experts say Republicans have an uphill battle on their hands, arguing it's more about political posturing rather than a criminal matter. 

"To get somebody back from a foreign state, you’d have to do the extradition process, and you’d have to go before a court and convince the court there’s some kind of criminal statute involved here. And that’s just simply not the case," said former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins. 

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Thursday that the FBI agreed to his request for help arresting the Democrats who are outside the reach of Texas law enforcement. Coggins says this is a surprising move. 

"It’s a bad idea. The FBI has a core mission and that’s to enforce federal criminal statutes. There’s no criminal or federal statutes involved here."

FOX 4 reached out to the FBI for a statement. They declined to comment. 

Texas Senate advances new congressional map

The Texas Senate committee approved a Republican-backed congressional redistricting map, setting the stage for a full Senate vote next week despite ongoing protests and criticisms of gerrymandering.

Local perspective:

The Senate committee heard some of the same complaints that house lawmakers heard in their meetings. Urban districts would now sprawl even deeper into conservative rural areas.

"Under this new map, someone in the White House, not Texas, wants to move me to CD 10, which would be a district that stretches almost to Louisiana," said Texas resident Sarah West.

Last week, a house committee approved the map, but the Democratic walkout has stalled any further action.

Republicans and the courts have held that redistricting for political gains is legal. But in the senate hearing where more than 100 people testified, most of those speakers did not see it that way. 

"This is about taking power away from everyday Texans," said Texas resident Monica Gonzalez.

"Texans don’t believe our congressional maps fairly represent our communities," said another Texas resident, Daniel Kelly.