00:00Well, thank you so much, Congresswoman Garcia. Good afternoon. I'm Lizzie Fletcher, and I am so proud to represent Texas' 7th Congressional District in Houston, and to serve as chair of the Texas Democratic delegation in the 119th Congress, and to serve with these leaders and friends from across Texas and across the country who are standing here today.
00:21In particular, I want to thank my friend, fellow Texan, and co-chair of the Voting Rights Caucus, Mark Vesey, for his leadership and for introducing recently the Anti-Rigging Act to ban the exact kind of mid-decade redistricting that we're talking about right now.
00:38As we've already heard today, in Texas, Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans have surrendered Texas to Donald Trump.
00:49They have utterly collapsed to pressure from President Trump, and they have surrendered to political operatives from Washington, D.C., who are directing them to redraw Texas' congressional maps to add five new GOP seats.
01:07This redistricting effort is an affront to all Texans, and to the principle that people deserve a say in their government.
01:18Make no mistake, in Texas, Republican partisan gerrymandering is racial gerrymandering, and it is illegal.
01:29They use partisanship as a proxy for race, systematically packing and cracking districts and minority communities to diminish and limit the voting power and the strength to as few districts as possible.
01:46They've done it over the years, and they're doing it again right now.
01:50And this is important to understand.
01:52All but one of the 13 congressional districts in Texas that are currently represented by Democrats has a majority-minority population, and all 13 of those districts, minority voters elect their candidate of choice to represent them in Washington.
02:12Simply put, you cannot dismantle any of these 13 districts currently represented by Democrats without diluting the voting strength of minority communities.
02:25It cannot be done.
02:26And it should go without saying, it should not be done.
02:30It's against the law, and it's against the fundamental organizing principle of a democratic society, that all citizens, not just the privileged few, but all of us, have the right and the ability to have a say in our democracy.
02:49This redistricting effort is not about one district.
02:54It's not about one member of Congress.
02:56It is an attack on the people that we represent.
02:59It is an attack on the voters and the citizens of Texas.
03:03And we will not stand by and just let it happen.
03:06Together with support from our friends in Congress and many others, we are fighting this redistricting effort, and we will continue to do it in every way we can think of, and some we probably haven't thought of yet.
03:18And so I'm so glad to have with us in the fight these incredible Texans that I'm standing here with today and our friends from across the country who are all working together because we understand the stakes in this effort, and we are not going to let this happen.
03:35So, with that, I'm glad to turn over the podium and the microphone to my friend and colleague from Dallas, Congresswoman Julie Johnson.
03:43One more Saturday.
03:44One more Saturday.
03:45We are standing here.
03:46Does this happen?
03:47We are standing here in the 영상 area.
03:48We are standing here.
03:49Do we please don't let this happen?
03:50Yes.
03:51That's both.
03:52Thanks for making sure.
03:53We are getting here together so go you can use.
