AUSTIN (1080 KRLD) - With the redistricting process having been completed, the legal challenges have now begun.
The redrawing of the state's congressional, legislative and board of education boundaries has already drawn a handful of lawsuits.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus has filed two separate lawsuits against Governor Abbott and Secretary of State John Scott over the state's redrawn maps -- one lawsuit deals with the redrawn congressional map, and the other deals with the redrawn legislative and state board of education maps.
"These racially gerrymandered maps minimize the voting power of our Latino, Black and Asian communities," says State Rep. Ana Hernandez, a member of the MALC legal counsel.
"Texas politicians undermined representative democracy to remain in power for the next decade at the expense of Texas voters," says State Rep. Rafael Anchia, MALC Chair. "MALC will protect the freedom to vote for all Texans, from the Texas Capitol to the White House."
Locally, State Senator Beverly Powell has filed her own lawsuit challenging the redrawing of her Fort Worth district on those same grounds.
"The adopted Senate map is a brutal attack on Tarrant County voters," Sen. Powell said in a statement. "The map cracks historic Tarrant County minority neighborhoods and submerges hundreds of thousands of Tarrant County voters into rural counties and suburban districts. It is an intentional racially discriminatory scheme to undermine and destroy the voting rights of those I am elected to serve."
KRLD has reached out to Gov. Abbott's office for reaction.
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