3:23Rep. Jasmine Crockett speaks onstage during the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, July 4, 2025, in New Orleans.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett stated on Friday that the congressional maps proposed by the GOP in Texas would remove her from her current district, part of a redistricting initiative that Democrats assert aims to secure five additional seats, thereby maintaining Republican dominance in the U.S. House of Representatives.
While providing public testimony at a hearing regarding the proposal in the state capitol, Crockett mentioned that she had been requested to verify her home address by the legislature, prior to the earlier field hearings.
"Besides the fact that I am aware the legislature requested us, as members of Congress, to confirm our addresses, I am uncertain how many of us genuinely continue to reside in the districts we represent. I do not presently live in my district according to the drawn plan, which raises another concern," she remarked.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett speaks onstage during the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, July 4, 2025, in New Orleans.Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
She claimed that several other members had also been redistricted out of their seats.
On a broader scale, Crockett criticized the proposed maps as biased and stated that the map "serves only to divide, distract, and dishearten," she expressed.
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who currently serves Texas’ 37th Congressional District but would be in the same district as fellow Democratic Rep. Greg Casar if the new maps are adopted, mentioned at the hearing that he is an "unconventional opponent of this plan" since over half of the constituents in his district, which he said he is running for reelection in, are still present.
"This is not a Texas map. It is a Trump map. It was not requested by any Republican or any Democrat in Texas. It was imposed by President Trump, who has a significant influence over Congress, and the only issue here is whether he also has a grip on this Texas legislature," Doggett declared.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett speaks during a mark up meeting with the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill, May 16, 2025.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Republican state Rep. Todd Hunter, who introduced the bill containing the new maps and chaired the 2021 redistricting committee in the legislature, stated during the hearing that "political performance" was a consideration when creating the maps.
Hunter also remarked later that the "newly established districts currently trend Republican in political performance. It does not guarantee electoral success. It does not assure; that depends on the candidates, but it does provide Republican candidates the chance to contend in these districts."
Redistricting in both Republican and Democratic states has frequently been accused of being partisan; the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts cannot oversee partisan gerrymandering.
Outside of the hearing, demonstrators gathered in the capitol’s rotunda to criticize the maps, according to images shared by state Rep. Gene Wu and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.
Some Republicans have defended the proposed new maps and the redistricting process.
Sen. John Cornyn speaks on Capitol Hill, April 8, 2025.Mark Schiefelbein/AP, FILE
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
