WATCH: Congressman Castro Testifies at Texas Capitol to Stand Against Governor Abbott’s Gerrymandering Efforts
AUSTIN, TX — Today, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) testified before the Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting to stand up to Governor Greg Abbott and President Trump for subverting the will of all Texans and disenfranchising the voting power of minority voters.
Congressman Castro Delivers 2 Minute Testimony
Congressman Castro’s testimony below:
Thank you, Chairman and Members of the Committee.
I am proud to represent my hometown of San Antonio, Texas, the 20th Congressional District.
I was a freshman in 2003, when as Democrats, we left the state for Ardmore, Oklahoma, to stop mid-decade redistricting more than 20 years ago.
It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.
And you all are being used. You're being used by the White House and by Donald Trump. You're being used because he doesn't want Democrats to control the majority of the Congress so that there'll be no investigations.
There has been no discussion in Congress about the floods that occurred in Kerr County and the loss of so many lives. There has been no discussion on the Epstein files, no discussions on the Iran leaks and all those messages by the Secretary of Defense and others.
There literally is no accountability right now in Congress and the people that are going to pay for this are the folks in Black and Brown communities in our cities. They're going to have their districts cracked and packed and un-Blacked because of this effort.
That's what's at stake here, whether you all are going to work for the people of Texas, as we used to do, or try to do, or whether you're going to take your commandments from Donald Trump and the White House.
I hope that you all will choose to do the business of the people of Texas as this body has a history of being independent from the federal government, not a stooge for it.
I yield back.
###