GOP Latino Voted To Disenfranchise Thousands In South Texas
By Rebecca Acuña, Dep. Political Director for Base Outreach for the Texas Democratic Party
As Chairman of the Hispanic Republican Conference, Aaron Peña has taken the lead in disenfranchising Latinos. When the Department of Justice (DOJ) objected to the newly redistricted Texas House map as violating the Voting Rights Act, they pointed to the district Aaron Peña gerrymandered for himself as a prime violation.
House District 40, which Hidalgo County residents elected Peña as a Democrat to represent, has 204,340 Hispanics. In a desperate attempt to remain in power, Peña drew himself a new House District 41 that was under-populated and has only 127,801 Hispanics. This means that the Chairman of the Hispanic Republican Conference, the person Republicans put in charge of Hispanic outreach, purged 76,539 Hispanics from his district.
Peña knows he has a better chance at staying in office if less people vote.
But just for extra insurance, Peña also voted in favor of the Republican voter suppression legislation which could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Texans and more than 22,000 voters in Hidalgo County. The Texas Secretary of State’s office recently released data showing that more than 600,000 people in Texas who are registered to vote do not have a Texas driver’s license or state issued identification. In Hidalgo County, 22,769 – or 7.98% of current registered voters – lack this identification. Of these, 17,984 are Hispanic. These figures don’t even take into account individuals who could register to vote in the near future.
Because of the hundreds of thousands of Texas voters that could be denied their fundamental right to vote, the DOJ has not pre-cleared the Pena-supported voter suppression legislation and has asked the state for additional evidence that the legislation will not disenfranchise voters. (My hunch is that if such evidence existed, the state would have submitted it in the first place.) In essence, the DOJ said that Texas, under the Voting Rights Act, had yet to prove that the legislation will not become an obstacle to the ballot box.
But Peña can’t point to his personal philosophy for supporting legislation to disenfranchise voters. In 2003 Peña was one of 52 Democrats that fled to Oklahoma to stop the Republican redistricting proposals which the Supreme Court later found unconstitutional. In 2009 when Aaron Peña sat on the Elections Committee as a Democrat, he voted against the Republican voter suppression legislation. It was only after joining the Republican Party that he supported legislation that will hurt Texas families and embraced proposals to disenfranchise voters.
Unfortunately, Peña’s votes aren’t just another tally. His votes will have tangible and devastating consequence on Texas, and specifically, Hidalgo County residents. He repeatedly put the interests of his party ahead of the interests of his constituents during the last legislative session, and now he’s scared. That’s why Aaron Peña and his Republican colleagues are using every trick in the book to try and pre-determine the outcome of elections.
From drawing an illegal district that purges 76,000 Hispanics to supporting legislation that could disenfranchise 22,000 in Hidalgo County, Peña is eager to trample on the voting rights of his constituents, all to improve his chances of stealing an election.
And although Peña might not care about the Voting Rights Act, fortunately for his constituents, the Department of Justice does.
Rebecca Acuña is the Deputy Political Director for Base Outreach for the Texas Democratic Party.
