A mapmaker hired by Texas Republicans to design a functionally racist gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts testified in federal court Wednesday on the role that Trump administration officials played in his assignment.
Adam Kincaid, the director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, testified over two days this week as part of a legal challenge on behalf of Texas voters by civil rights groups that allege the new maps are illegal because they blatantly dilute the power of nonwhite voters, particularly Black voters.
Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has openly said that Texas’ mid-decade gerrymander — which she helped launch with a letter that made unfounded claims that two largely nonwhite districts were illegal — is designed to correct “racial spoils” that she said Democrats have supposedly reaped through the districting process. As far as the Trump administration is concerned, it has hardly been a secret this is a race-based undertaking.
The administration’s declarations have thrown a wrench into the argument advanced by Kincaid and Texas Republicans that race wasn’t a factor in their gerrymander, per a report from the El Paso Times. The mapmaker was called as a witness for the state of Texas and testified that although he had access to racial data on voters, he only used information on their voting behaviors to draw districts favorable to Republicans. That such a nakedly partisan intent could constitute a legally justifiable defense shows how illiberalism is baked into the U.S. political system — but it was notable that Kincaid sought to distance his work from the Trump administration’s remarks.
Per the El Paso Times:
Kincaid said he began working on the Texas redistricting map after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to state leaders asking the state to redistrict to find the five new districts. When questioned by attorneys for the civil rights organizations, Kincaid clarified that he was already working on [a] redistricting map for the Republican National Committee before the letter was received by Texas leaders, but hadn’t started officially working on the Texas congressional map.
The report continues:
The Republican National Committee paid Kincaid $2,500 per month to work on the redistricting map. The payments started the day Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special session to take up redistricting, Kincaid testified.
Kincaid testified that he met with White House officials before Abbott made the gerrymandering effort official, and that although he saw Dhillon’s letter before it was delivered to Texas officials, it was “unnecessary.”
Democracy Docket reports Kincaid testified that he was acting on requests from White House officials and Texas’ congressional delegation. The state argued, however, that attorney-client privilege shielded him from having to answer questions about what guidance he received or why he drew the maps the way he did.
Dhillon’s letter makes plain that the Trump administration wanted a gerrymander in Texas to dilute nonwhite voter power, and that’s what it got. The only lingering question is whether a court agrees with her assessment that breaking up those districts is constitutional.
