A redistricting proposal was published online on Monday that would put the majority of Denton into House District 13, a district that is currently represented by Republican Representative Ronny Jackson in Amarillo. The proposal was the Texas Legislature’s first redistricting map for the next decade, so it is not final, but still indicative of what these legislatures envision for Texas’ future.

The newly elected head of the Denton County Democratic Party Delia Parker-Mims has stated that the proposal is a backhanded way of diluting Democrats’ votes and voices in the state. “The overwhelming majority of people in Texas want a nonpartisan redistricting. At this point, it is apparent that the redistricting map is going to be drawn in a way to dilute the possibility of any progressive or Democratic votes having an impact.”

Ronny Jackson’s District 13 currently covers parts of more than 20 counties, but in this new redistricting his area would include new parts of Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Gainesville, and Denton. Similarly, House District 26 which is held by Republican Michael Burgess would expand to include parts of Denton County as well as parts of Wise County, Tarrant County, and Cooke County, a plan which Parker-Mims said dilutes the county “with more rural areas as opposed to suburban area.”

Denton is a varied county with blue and red areas, but this redistricting would take the blue of Denton out of Burgess’ district and push it into the larger red district that Ronny Jackson holds. The presence of Democratic votes in the area has been growing, and in the future, they would have threatened Burgess’ hold on the district, but if this redistricting or something similar is passed, those Democratic voters would be pushed into a district where their voices would be heavily outweighed by Republican interests.

https://dentonrc.com/news/politics/denton-would-be-split-up-in-state-redistricting-proposal/article_9e731217-a567-5697-86a1-89697f690734.html