Hi friends! I’m Olivia Messer, editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire. I’m delighted to share that we’re just weeks away from our 🎂 One Year Anniversary 🎂 on Aug. 26, which means our free The Barbed Wire newsletter is going to look extra fancy while we try to convince you to support us with some of those hard-earned dollars. If you’re already a member, thank you!!! (We love you.)
All eyes are on Texas this week, as Republicans in the state house proposed new Congressional maps that would all but guarantee five additional GOP representatives from the Lone Star State. For those keeping score at home, that’d enable Republicans to carry 30 out of 38 congressional seats from Texas – in a state where they receive just north of 50% of the vote. That math ain’t mathin’!
In case you missed this bombshell report on Friday: Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who authored Texas’ abortion trigger ban, has denied allegations from a self-described former exotic dancer who claims he paid for abortions. Capriglione recently announced he won’t seek reelection, but some state leaders are now calling for his resignation.
Next, let H. Drew Blackburn take you on a little tour of a bygone Austin, courtesy of the classic Richard Linklater indie film “Slacker,” which turned 35 this month. Speaking of Austin, it looks like the Texas capital will be the home of the next season of “Love Is Blind.” The show is casting as we speak. (Wait…. Should I???)
Lastly, please read this first-person essay from Lanae Tipton, an incarcerated journalist in Texas with a desperate plea for air conditioning in prisons. She watched a woman seize on the floor of her cell from the heat. As one prison staffer said, “I vomited blood.”
Author of Texas Abortion Ban Denies He Paid for Abortions Amid Bombshell Allegations from Former Exotic Dancer
By Olivia Messer and Cara Kelly
You (Yes, You) Should Be Pissed About the Texas GOP’s Shameless Gerrymandering
At President Trump’s command, Republicans are set to carve up Texas like a Christmas ham. Predictably, the gerrymandering spree involves stripping voting power away from Black Texans. At its core, it’s an insult to us all — regardless of partisan stripes.
By Billy Begala
We should all be pissed.
At President Trump’s behest, the Texas GOP released new proposed congressional maps Wednesday, and on the surface, they’re exactly what Republicans seemed to be hoping for: an aggressive gerrymander that, if passed, would more than likely deliver five additional seats to Republicans in Congress.
To oversimplify a complicated process, Republicans’ proposed maps would accomplish this by stripping nearly a quarter million Black voters out of Congressional District 9 in Houston and packing them into two neighboring districts. Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio liberals would be stuffed into as few districts as possible, while Fort Worth would be split into bits small enough to be offset by large swaths of rural Republicans. The so-called “Fajita Strip” districts of South Texas would get a makeover, too, cutting the still-progressive city of McAllen in half and leaving South Texas Democrats without a favorable seat.
But any Republicans gleefully spiking the football should be careful what they wish for.
Success for the GOP depends on a few important variables. Namely, the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to abide by the disenfranchisement of Black voters, and Republicans’ ability to hold onto gains with Latino voters.
To the first point, the justices’ stomach for disenfranchisement seems high. During a 2006 challenge to a different Texas gerrymandering spree, Chief Justice John Roberts characterized the Voting Rights Act’s protections of minority voters as a “sordid business.” And in 2013, the Supreme Court effectively gutted the voting protections of the VRA, opening the floodgates to… well, what we’re seeing this week.
However, continued Republican popularity among Latino voters in Texas is — to put it mildly — not a sure thing.
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