Friday, June 6
Elon Musk left DOGE to start drama, but the department will continue to wreak havoc on millions of Americans with its new successor, Russell Vought, who Democracy Docket dug into this week.
THIS WEEK
- National GOP operatives set their sights on local gerrymandering in Texas
- Alabama Republicans put their redistricting efforts on hold
- RNC intervenes in support of Trump’s anti-voting executive order
TEXAS
Minority voters sue Tarrant County Republicans over gerrymander
Republican officials in Tarrant County, Texas, approved a new redistricting plan this week to boost their own power in county government, and they insist packing minority voters into one precinct has nothing to do with race. But it’s easy to read between the (gerrymandered) lines: Minority communities now make up a majority of Tarrant County’s population and Republicans don’t want elections to reflect that.
A group of minority voters quickly filed suit, arguing the new map violates the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
While there’s nothing new about lawmakers – on both sides of the aisle – redrawing maps to their benefit, this case is a little different. Local Republicans brought in Adam Kincaid, the national GOP’s top map-maker, and the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a high-profile anti-voting law firm in Washington, D.C., to lead the redistricting effort. Then they approved an eleventh-hour version of the map that came out after public hearings had already happened.
And that’s not all. As soon as the map was approved, a far-right Republican state lawmaker immediately announced he was running to represent the county precinct that was just redrawn to his party’s benefit.
Local Democrats are warning this type of coordinated attack from the national GOP won’t end with Tarrant County. And there’s no doubt the plan’s architects have the power to make that happen: In addition to Kincaid’s role, the project was overseen by Maureen Riordan, who was an attorney at the Public Interest Legal Foundation until last month. You’ll never guess where she works now.
She just became the acting chief of the voting section at the U.S. Department of Justice, as Democracy Docket reportedexclusively Saturday. Read more about Tarrant County redistricting here.