Beto Holds Anti-Gerrymandering Virtual Rally on Twitter

“It’s hard to think of something more important, and more difficult to understand than census data and redistricting,” said former congressman Beto O’Rourke

The United States is a more diverse country today than it was in 2010. Texas is one of the states that has grown the most in the last 10 years, gaining 2 new congressional districts, and it is mainly due to Latin, Black, and Asian communities. 

Today, the new electoral districts have to represent the views of the entire American people and a new legal battle is about to begin as the U.S. Census officials released data on Thursday, showing the most sweeping picture of America’s racial and ethnic makeup ever.

The GOP will attempt to do what they have done in the last decades, gerrymander districts, alienating minorities, and reducing their representation in Congress. Democrats are trying to stop this, raising conscience on what’s happening and Beto O’Rourke, as one of the most prominent leaders of the blue party, held a virtual rally via Twitter on Thursday with Michael Li, an NYU expert on anti-gerrymandering and redistricting. 

The situation in Texas is critical, diversity of representatives in Texas (and democracy) is at huge risk during the next few weeks as Abbott starts a crusade for one of the most ambitious gerrymandering tactics of the century.

As Beto claimed during the virtual rally, at one point, a federal panel described what happened in Texas as a racial gerrymander because Texas was drawing black voters literally out of their former districts to diminish the power of their vote. The virtual rally attracted multiple political celebrities like state senators, university academics, candidates for the 2022 election, including the 2022 US Congressional Candidate for Austin, Donna Imam who was able to share some thoughts during the event. To end the event, Beto encouraged the American people to stand up against voter restriction rights and to gerrymandering, ending on a high tone saying “Democracy is not a spectator sport”.