{"id":1432059,"date":"2025-08-05T08:46:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T13:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1432059"},"modified":"2025-10-18T12:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:46:30","slug":"local-officials-react-to-texas-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1432059","title":{"rendered":"Local officials react to Texas redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1432060\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>SMITH COUNTY &#8211; Over the weekend, fifty-one House Democrats went to Illinois to stall a meeting that was scheduled to take place Monday at 3 p.m. for a redistricting vote. This move by Texas Democrats has ignited fiery reactions nationwide from both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n<p>Some Republican lawmakers believe the current map does not correctly represent specific groups, specifically in the state\u2019s two largest cities, Dallas and Houston. Democrats are concerned that this could heavily favor the GOP in elections. Smith County Democratic Chairman Hector Garza said this is all a power play to give five new Republican seats in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n<p>District nine representative, Trent Ashby, says efforts to redraw the map are to make it more \u2018constitutionally effective\u2019.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we are attempting to do here in Texas is nothing new,\u201d Ashby said. \u201cIf anything, what we\u2019re trying to do is make sure that our current congressional districts are constitutional and reflect the will of Texas voters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re doing it now because they have a fear of losing the house,\u201d Garza said.\u201dThey have a fear of losing votes and losing seats on this. If they were truly making America great again, then they wouldn\u2019t have to worry about losing seats. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Governor Abbot is now threatening to arrest and remove the elected officials from their positions.<\/p>\n<p>Republican representative, Joanne Shofner, claimed the Democrats are taking \u201c\u2026 the coward\u2019s way out\u201d and, \u201cthe governors playing hard ball, the speakers playing hard ball because of this, as he can legally, that their seats are vacated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chairman Garza said he doesn\u2019t believe Abbott can fire the officials, since they were elected by the people, and predicts lawsuits would follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SMITH COUNTY &#8211; Over the weekend, fifty-one House Democrats went to Illinois to stall a meeting that was scheduled to take place Monday at 3 p.m. for a redistricting vote. This move by Texas Democrats has ignited fiery reactions nationwide from both sides of the aisle. Some Republican lawmakers believe the current map does not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1432059\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Local officials react to Texas redistricting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1432084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1432059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 07:33:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/08\/political-party-pins-e1754401446682-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1432059"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1450890,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432059\/revisions\/1450890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1432084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1432059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1432059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1432059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}