Texas Senate advances HB 4 after hours of questioning on race, legality and expert analyses

The Texas Senate on August 22 advanced House Bill 4, a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, after hours of floor questioning about whether the map was drawn with unlawful racial considerations and over the sponsor’s refusal to release underlying expert analyses.

Senator King, the Senate author of HB 4, told colleagues multiple times that he had not reviewed racial-demographic files himself and that he had relied on outside counsel to review the map. “I did not take racial data into consideration,” King said on the floor. He also told senators that his lawyers had concluded the plan “completely complies with the VRA” and the Constitution.

The questioning focused on whether the map’s practical effect — and not just its stated intent — would dilute minority voting strength. Senator Gutierrez pressed King on several points, including the narrow citizen-voting-age-population (CVAP) percentages in several districts and whether the mapmakers consulted racial block-level data. Gutierrez cited figures that he said appear in the map files: CD 9 at 50.3 percent Hispanic CVAP, CD 30 at 50.2 percent Black CVAP, CD 18 at 50.5 percent Black CVAP and CD 35 at 51.6 percent Hispanic CVAP. Gutierrez asked, “What is the likelihood … of increasing these seats to just a fraction beyond a majority of one race if race was not considered?”

King repeatedly answered that he had not personally analyzed racial…