Redrawing The Lines, Silencing The Voices

Forbes

12 hours ago

Normally, states redraw their maps after a census but Texas isn't waiting. They know exactly where the growth in their state is coming from. It's in Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas-Fort Worth, where Black entrepreneurs and immigrant-owned businesses are reshaping local economies. Instead of competing for those voters, lawmakers are pushing a mid-decade redraw to flip five congressional seats and carve up the districts that defend major federal investments in minority communities.
When a district changes hands, so does the power to decide where the money goes. Decisions such as affordable housing being built, a family getting solar panels to reduce energy expenses, or a Black entrepreneur finally securing the capital to grow their business are affected by federal investments.
In Texas, the districts on the chopping block are the ones that have delivered impactful results. They've developed affordable housing that working families can actually afford. They've brought clean energy into neighborhoods that had been locked out of the green economy for decades. They've put capital in the hands of entrepreneurs of color who'd been told 'no' for years by traditional banks. These are real wins changing the trajectory of thousands of lives.
In Fort Worth's Stop Six neighborhood, a $35 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant is tearing down old public housing and replacing it with new homes, better schools, and streets that can handle a heavy thunderstorm without shutting the neighborhood down. That money is expected to pull in more than $345 million in other investment. In San Antonio, federal HOME and CDBG funds have built over 2,200 affordable homes since 2021 worth north of $44 million - homes within reach for working families, near the jobs and transit they rely on. And in Houston's Fifth Ward, a $20 million EPA environmental justice grant is paying for solar projects, storm shelter upgrades, and heat relief in neighborhoods that have lived with industrial pollution for generations.
These wins didn't happen bv accident. They happened because local leaders representing these districts pushed the bills, secured the earmarks, and made sure their communities weren't left out. If the map is changed and those champions aren't there next term, the leverage to keep those dollars flowing could leave with them.
Now imagine Texas's redistricting strategy replicated across the country. What happens if other state legislatures don't value investments in affordable housing, environmental justice, and minority entrepreneurship? Housing dollars dry up, environmental justice projects stall, and community investments disappear, not because the need is gone, but because the voice for them was cut out of the process.
At the end of the day, it's about whether minority communities are allowed to rise on their own terms, or survive in a system designed for their failure.
The Ripple Effect of Weak Voting Protections
While Texas is rewriting the map, the Supreme Court is weighing Callais v. Ardoin, a case from Louisiana that could take the last real teeth from Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act - the provision that has allowed voters and civil rights groups to challenge racially discriminatory maps for decades. If the Court eliminates that power, then only the Justice Department would be allowed sue. That would turn voting rights enforcement from a legal guarantee into a political choice.
We've already seen big pieces of the Voting Rights Act fall in recent years. Shelby County v. Holder killed the preclearance rule that stopped states with a history of discrimination from changing voting laws without federal approval. Brnovich v. DNC made it harder to prove discrimination even when it's plainly obvious. If Callais goes the wrong way, Section 2 will still be on the books, but with almost no way to enforce it.
I didn't live through poll taxes or literacy tests, but I know the history. Back then, the goal was to keep you from voting. Now, they'll let you vote, but they'll control the outcome by deciding where your vote counts and where it doesn't.
We already know how to fix this. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore federal oversight, strengthen legal protections against discrimination, and preserve the right to sue the hands of the people living through it. Yet, Congress refuses to act. And every day they stall, states like Texas push further toward erasing hard-won progress.
If Callais goes the wrong way and Texas gets its redraw, we already know what comes next Other states will adopt the same playbook and the communities with the most at stake will have the least say in what happens to them.
We are headed toward segregation in so‑called 'red' and 'purple' states.