BUILDING A BETTER TEXAS TOGETHER!

REP. VINCE PEREZ AND FOUR TEXAS DEMS LAND IN CALIFORNIA TO MEET WITH GOVERNOR NEWSOM, TOP STATE & FEDERAL LEADERS

Texas Legislative Delegation to California underscores the national consequences of Texas’ Efforts to Blatantly Discriminate Against and Severely Underrepresent Hispanic and Black Texans for Temporary Political Gain Until Courts Overturn

SACRAMENTO, CA — Texas State Representative Vince Perez, along with four of his Democratic colleagues, arrived in California early this afternoon to meet with Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and top state and federal leaders to discuss the severe levels of discrimination, under representation, and racial segregation in the Republican Congressional Redistricting Proposal. Texas Republicans are attempting to pass the most racially discriminatory map Texas has since the Passage of the 1965 Rights Act in an attempt to give President Trump at least 5 additional Republican seats until the courts overturn their unlawful map.

“These maps are so racially discriminatory that Latino and Black residents have only 1/3 and 1/5 the value of white residents in Texas," said Rep. Perez. "At least 26 of Texas’ 38 congressional districts (70%) were racial engineered to give white residents unfair advantages over Hispanic and Black neighborhoods that were fractured to deliberately prevent them from influencing the outcome of the congressional elections in those districts. The remaining districts were designed to be ‘vote dumpsters’ to sideline the votes of millions of black and Hispanic Texans solely based on their race. These maps not only severely undermine Hispanic and Black Texans, the political advantage Texas is trying to get from this racially segregated map will also come at the expense of the people of California, and millions of others across the United States. That’s why we’re here—to expose the racial engineering that’s being done to give Donald Trump a temporary boost in power until the courts overturn this injustice.”

The passage of this map would result in Texas Hispanics becoming the largest and most underrepresented racial/ethnic minority in the United States. Republicans racially engineered the proposed lines so egregiously that Republicans are attempting to represent 90% of all white residents in the state, while diluting the influence of all other racial/ethnic groups in the state.

Rep. Perez joins fellow Texas Democrats in breaking quorum to protest and resist what he has called “the most unjust and racially engineered maps Texas has seen since the 1960’s.” The delegation is calling national attention to how the GOP-drawn maps suppress Latino and Black voting power in direct violation of democratic principles.

Perez also added, “It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democratic, White, Black, Latino, or Asian—all Americans should be appalled at what Texas Republicans are proposing. What will happen when our government does not feel it is accountable to all people, but only one group that it hand picks, particularly when that is done solely on the basis of skin color? I urge all Americans to resist this attempt to take our society back to the turbulence of the 1960’s and the struggle for civil rights.”

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Vince Perez is State Representative for House District 77 in El Paso. He serves on the influential House Ways and Means Committee as well the committees on Higher Education and Local, Consent, and Resolutions Calendars. He is the former El Paso County Commissioner for Precinct 3 and was named the 2016 County Leader of the Year by American City & County Magazine. He is a lifelong resident of El Paso's Mission Valley, where he lives with his dogs Whiskey, Lady, and Manchas.