When the new Texas congressional maps were released, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) decided that it was probably time to step away from office rather than fight for a seat he was destined to lose due to those redrawn district boundaries
This week, a federal judge blocked implementation of the new maps, and while the state has said it will appeal the decision, it will be tough for Texas to win this fight.
So, the 79-year-old Doggett now says that he may not step away from the House after all.
I will not bore you too much with the details of the redistricting battle.
Donald Trump got the very bad idea to reach out to Republican governors and ask them to gerrymander their maps to win congressional seats during an election cycle that is historically a bloodbath for a new president's party.
Texas answered the bell, as did several other red states, but numerous others are not going along with the plan. Additionally, blue states like California have responded by further gerrymandering their already manipulated maps.
I don’t like the redistricting strategy, and I never have. In fact, having looked at all the maps, when Trump first announced his intentions, I suggested there were two possible outcomes. First, we could lose the House because the Dems stood to gain more seats if they responded in kind. Second, the maps would likely be rejected if they were challenged in court, and so far, every new map has indeed been challenged.
This week, Texas lost the case for its maps in a 2-1 decision from a judicial panel that included a Trump-appointed judge.
In the ruling, the judges noted that the maps appeared to have been racially gerrymandered and were therefore blocked, handing the GOP a defeat and the Democrats a massive win.
The court even mentioned the directive from the Trump administration to gerrymander, writing, "DOJ threatened legal action if Texas didn't immediately dismantle and redraw these districts, a threat based on their racial makeup. Notably, the DOJ letter targeted only majority non-white districts.”
The ruling continued, "Any mention of majority white districts, which DOJ presumably would have also targeted if its aims were partisan rather than racial, was conspicuously absent."
Doggett, who is 79, should not be running for office again, regardless of any map changes, and he had planned on stepping down once he saw the redistricting writing on the wall, but now he has decided to stay in the race.
After the ruling was issued, Doggett posted a video to social media, stating, "To borrow from Mark Twain, I can happily say that the reports of my death politically are greatly exaggerated.”
He continued, "I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to represent the only town I’ve ever called home, at a time when democracy faces the greatest challenges that it has ever faced at any point in my lifetime. Thank you."
Just what we need… another fossil hanging around far past his prime so that he can keep collecting that government check.
