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u.s. news Diabierna 26 november 2021

New maps spark debate over majority-minority districts

(AP) — Adam Hollier is said. “It’s just the reality. It’s respectively.
a lieutenant in the Army got nothing to do with me.
Reserves, a paratrooper, Draw maps that majority- “I think we’re in a new age
Detroit native, a Demo- Black communities can win.” now,” said Bakari Sellers, an
crat and a Black man. He African American former
is also a state senator who Whether Hollier is right is at South Carolina state leg-
represents a majority- the heart of a heated debate islator. “If you’re talented
Black district that stretch- over how to ensure racial and enough, you can win in a 30-
es across the northeastern ethnic minority communi- 35% Black district. ... We can
edge of his economically ties can elect the officehold- be more competitive around
battered and resilient ers of their choice. The fight the country.”
hometown. That critical is complicated and wonky
mass of Black voters, Hol- — like most surrounding the But that’s a hard sell to some
lier argues, ensures he has once-a-decade redistricting lawmakers and advocates
a chance to be elected and process. But the stakes are pushing to put more people
give voice to people who clear: Black, Latino and Asian of color in statehouses and
have long been ignored by Americans are underrepre- Congress. Black legislators
the political system. sented in state legislatures. make up less than 10% of
state legislators in the U.S.,
Rebecca Szetela is a lawyer For decades, the widely ac- although 14.2% of the popu-
who describes herself as an cepted strategy was to group lation is Black, according to seats in districts that are still
independent, and a white together Black voters so they the National Conference of majority African American Increasing competition is one
woman who chairs Michi- comprised a majority in a State Legislatures. Latinos are — but had recently been re- of the goals of Michigan’s
gan’s new Independent statehouse or congressio- 18.7% of the population and drawn to have fewer Black commission, which voters
Citizens Redistricting Com- nal district. That principle just 5.3% of state lawmakers. voters. Control of the House created in 2018 after decades
mission. Its job is to redraw was enshrined in the federal Asians comprise 2% of legis- of Delegates will come down of partisan gerrymander-
the lines of legislative seats Voting Rights Act, which re- lators but 7.2% of the popula- to two other races that are in ing controlled by Republi-
to promote more partisan quires the creation of districts tion. recounts. cans. The commission also is
competition in a state where with a majority or plurality of tasked with considering rep-
Republicans have dominated Black — or other minority In Nevada, Latino and other Jonathan Cervas, one of the resentation of minority com-
the Legislature for decades. racial or ethnic group — vot- activist groups opposed maps experts who redrew the Vir- munities and following the
One of the best ways to do ers in places where the white drawn by the Democratic- ginia districts in 2019, said Voting Rights Act.
that, and empower minor- population has a history of controlled Legislature be- the aim was to rectify what a
ity voters, Szetela and other preventing them from elect- cause the plan spread Latinos court had found was discrim- It is advancing maps that
commissioners argue, is put- ing their chosen representa- broadly around the state’s ination against Black voters. would cut the number of
ting some of the majority- tives. congressional and legislative He argued that the Voting majority-Black districts from
Black neighborhoods in Hol- districts to increase the odds Rights Act does not guarantee two to zero in Congress and
lier’s district in other seats, That strategy was reinforced of Democratic victories. In Black legislators will always from roughly a dozen to as
where they may have more by partisan politics. Republi- Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. be reelected. “The problem few as three in the Legis-
say over Michigan’s leader- cans have been happy to draw Tony Evers asked a com- is the Democrats had a bad lature, pending final votes.
ship. districts with large numbers mission to propose maps to election,” Cervas said. Commissioners argue that
of Black voters because Black counter ones drawn by the there is evidence that Black
For Hollier’s 2nd Senate voters overwhelmingly favor GOP-controlled Legislature. Still, the shift toward un- candidates can still win elec-
District, that means some Democrats. The effect was But Black and Latino Demo- packing districts is likely to tions. In 2020, for example,
of its Detroit neighbor- to pack Democrats into just a crats objected to the com- lead to turnover in legisla- racial minorities won 19 of 20
hoods would be grafted on few districts and leave other mission’s maps because they tures and Congress. In North legislative seats where Black
to mostly white districts, and parts of the state more safely would scatter minority voters Carolina, a new GOP-ap- people constitute at least 35%
his own seat would stretch Republican. across several districts. proved map cut the share of of the voting-age population.
across Eight Mile Road, the Black voters in Democratic
infamous boundary between But politics has changed dra- “I get what Republicans have Rep. G.K Butterfield’s dis- “What we have done is taken
Detroit and its first-ring, matically since the law was done, completely, but I’m not trict from 45% to 38%. The those areas and divided them
majority white suburbs. Its passed in 1965. Now, only willing to sacrifice Black rep- nine-term African American into multiple districts so that
Black voting-age population 18 of the 53 members of the resentation and brown repre- congressman announced his there’s actually more districts
would drop to 42%. Congressional Black Caucus sentation, I’m just not,” said resignation this month and where minority voters will be
were elected in districts that Sen. Lena Taylor, one of two called the new map “racially able to elect their candidates
Hollier, like other Black law- are majority African Ameri- African American Democrats gerrymandered.” of choice, which should actu-
makers, is furious, saying that can. Rising Black politicians in the Wisconsin state Senate, ally have the effect of increas-
move jeopardizes Black elect- like Rep. Antonio Delgado who voted against her party’s At the other extreme, Dem- ing the representation among
ed officials. “By and large, and Rep. Joe Neguse repre- map. ocrats filed a lawsuit this the African American com-
Black people vote for Black sent heavily white areas in month alleging that Ala- munity,” Szetela said.
people and white people vote New York’s Hudson River The other, Sen. LaTonya bama Republicans improp-
for white people,” Hollier Valley and Boulder, Colorado Johnson, disagreed, saying erly packed Black voters into But Republicans and oth-
the Democratic plan was far the state’s 7th Congressional ers, including the state’s civil
better than the alternative: “I District, making it home to rights director, predict legal
don’t believe that the maps nearly one out of every three troubles ahead.
proposed would block Black African Americans in the
candidates of choice, but I state. Jamie Roe, a GOP consultant
would rather have to fight tracking the redistricting pro-
harder for my seat than have One quarter of Alabama’s cess, noted Michigan has had
my community suffer anoth- population is Black, but the two majority-Black congres-
er 10 years under a Republi- 7th is the sole district repre- sional districts since at least
can gerrymander.” sented by an African Ameri- the 1960s — whether drawn
can in Congress, Rep. Terri by legislators or courts.
The risks in balancing the Sewell. It is also the only
racial composition of dis- Democratic-held district in “They have opened them-
tricts were illustrated in this the state. A more even distri- selves terribly to a Voting
month’s Virginia elections. bution of Black voters, Dem- Rights Act challenge,” he
Two Black Democratic del- ocrats argue, might help then said.
egates narrowly lost their win a second.