LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling against Texas’ new congressional map, while it considers whether the maps can be used in the midterm elections.
The high court put the block on hold for the next few days, as Texas asks for a final ruling by December 1. With the candidates filing deadline just weeks away on December 8, the state claims the lower court’s decision throws the congressional elections into “disarray.”
Rep. Carl Tepper, who represents Lubbock, said the timing creates uncertainty for legislators who planned to run for newly-drawn congressional seats.
“It’s important to know that quite a few members of the legislature, my colleagues, have deferred running for reelection as members of the legislature and are now running for their seats at the newly-drawn congressional seats,” Tepper said. “So, it’ll be interesting if the old maps stand, and the appeals fail, then these guys are out of their political careers, at least for a while.”
A three-judge panel out of El Paso voted 2-1 that the old maps should stand, claiming “substantial evidence shows Texas racially gerrymandered” the new one.
Tepper, who served on the committee that passed the new map, disputed that claim.
“I don’t know what the racial makeups are. I never looked at it. I just knew that, you know, as a partisan officeholder, and we all are, that I want the more Republican-drawn seats,” Tepper said.
The state’s filing claims the man hired to draw the map “never considered racial data” and “did not have it visible on his computer.”
“It’s distasteful for us to look at race as a deciding factor in anything. It’s just anti, it’s just anti our belief system. We are just looking for the opportunity for lower taxes, lower regulation, those things that have made the Texas miracle,” Tepper said.
Tepper argued that polls show 50 to 55 percent of Hispanics in Texas voted for Trump and there’s been an increase in Black voter support for the president. He said the reason to redraw was purely partisan.
“We’re looking at a very, very thin margin, a majority for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives right now. We’d like to expand that majority,” Tepper said.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has blocked similar lower court rulings because they have come too close to elections.
“I think we’re looking at possibly more favorable dynamics in the U.S. Supreme Court. And I think they’re going to decide our way,” Tepper said.
The Supreme Court’s temporary block came only about an hour after the state called on it to intervene. That order will remain in place for at least the next few days while it considers the case.
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