A large portion of a federal lawsuit filed by LULAC against Gov. Greg Abbott involving redistricting claims affecting Rio Grande Valley voters was dismissed Tuesday, though one of the claims will move forward.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, filed the lawsuit in October 2021 alleging the redistricting maps were being formed in ways that disadvantaged Latino voters of congressional District 15, State Board of Education Districts 2 and 3, and House District 37, among others. Another case filed by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus was joined with LULAC’s lawsuit.
Plaintiffs believed the new plans were “packed” and “cracked” to, respectively, lump voters into areas that already elect minority leaders or break up large groups and push them into conservative districts.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama filed an opinion dismissing LULAC’s claims for congressional District 15, and both state education board districts, all of which are heavily composed of Valley residents. However, their claims involving state House District 37 survived.
The plaintiffs failed to show that a minority candidate in congressional District 15 would usually lose to an white voting bloc, the judge wrote in his opinion.
According to the opinion, the defendants alleged “reconstituted election results indicate that in 4 out of 8 analyzed statewide elections between 2014 and 2020, the Latino candidate of choice would have lost in the enacted CD.”
The judge added, “Assuming those allegations to be true, the Defendants contend, shows only that the minority candidate of choice is equally likely to win or lose, not that Anglo bloc voting means that the minority candidate will usually lose.”
Arguments by the plaintiffs claiming disadvantages in the state education board races were unconvincing, too.
“MALC [the plaintiffs] alleges only that the Hispanic preferred candidate would have lost in 5 of 9 (55%) statewide contests in ED2 and in 2 of 9 (22%) such elections in ED3 using reconstituted election results between 2014 and 2020. While 55% is indeed more than 50%, it is still difficult to infer that Hispanic voters in ED2 will suffer ‘usual and predictable defeat,’” the opinion read.
In the House District 37 map, Guaderramo said he found the math added in favor of the plaintiffs’ argument.
“The Court can infer from its calculations that the Anglo-preferred candidate will usually win because of their alleged greater political cohesion and turnout. Under these assumptions, by the Court’s arithmetic, Anglo voters can prevail over the Hispanic candidate of choice when their turnout exceeds the SSTO [Spanish Surname Turnout] by as little as 9%,” Guaderramo wrote in his opinion.
Following the redistricting efforts, three of four Valley district maps contested in the lawsuit saw unprecedented results in the November general election.
In congressional District 15, for the first time in its history, the seat was won by a Republican candidate. Over in Cameron County, a Republican also claimed the state seat for House District 37 which was previously held by a Democrat. And in the District 2 race for the state education board, a Republican beat out the Democratic incumbent.
“LULAC has no comment at this time until we fully review and analyze today’s court decision,” LULAC President Domingo Garcia said in a statement.
While the case against congressional District 15, state education board Districts 2 and 3 were dismissed, the lawsuit will continue for the portions involving House Districts 37 and 90, a district in Fort Worth.
