The man who drew the Texas redistricting map claimed voter race played no role in the process, despite democrats claiming he targeted minorities to dilute their votes.
Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, testified Tuesday, Oct. 7, during the federal lawsuit trial filed by civil rights organizations against Texas leaders, who claimed the state targeted minorities in its redistricting efforts.
The trial, which began Oct.1, is being held at the Albert Armendariz Sr. U.S. Courthouse in Downtown El Paso.
Testimony throughout the trial hinted at Kincaid being the person who created the map. He testified he did draw the map.
He testified that race played no factor in the creation of the map as the main focus targeted Democrats to create five Republican-leaning districts for President Donald Trump. Kincaid said he began working on the Texas redistricting map after the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to state leaders asking the state to redistrict to find the five new districts.
When questioned by the attorneys for the civil rights organizations, Kincaid clarified that he was already working on redistricting map for the Republican National Committee before the letter was received by Texas leaders, but hadn’t started officially working on the Texas congressional map.
The Republican National Committee paid Kincaid $2,500 per month to work on the redistricting map. The payments started the day Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special session to take up redistricting, Kincaid testified.
Kincaid testified he used voter registration records, information on who voted in the previous elections, and which party primary election they voted in. While census data, which includes race information, was available, he testified he did not use it to create the map.
Republican leaders ordered Kincaid to find at least five new Republican-leaning districts, increase Trump voter support by 10 points in districts where Trump received less than 60% of votes, and increase votes for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kincaid testified.
The Texas Senate seats are elected in statewide elections. The two seats are not tied to specific Texas congressional districts.
Texans do not have to register by party affiliation. They get to select what primary they will vote in — if at all.
Kincaid said he achieved GOP goals by compacting districts and splitting Republican-leaning districts. Compacting districts entailed combining Democratic districts into one to give those voters one less representative. Democratic leaders, who have testified earlier in the trial, claimed the compacting was done by racial profiling and focused on minority majority districts. Democrats argued the redistricting violated the voters’ constitutional rights.
Hispanics and Blacks historically vote Democrat.
Kincaid countered in his testimony that he focused on partisan politics, targeting Democratic districts. He added that he also redistricted at least one Republican district by splitting the district to create two Republican-leaning districts.
He claimed he “never” looked at racial data when making any decisions during the drawing of the redistricting map.
Kincaid continued to deny using racial data to make the map when questioned by the civil rights organizations’ attorneys.
When questioned on the U.S. Department of Justice letter by the civil rights attorneys, Kincaid testified that he saw a draft of the U.S. Department of Justice letter before it was sent to Texas leaders during a meeting at the White House. He testified he never spoke to Trump about redistricting.
“My view of the DOJ letter was that it was unnecessary,” Kincaid testified.
The letter claimed coalition districts, in which two minority groups combine to form a voting majority, were illegal and Texas needed to fix any coalition districts in the state. Kincaid testified that the letter was inaccurate regarding coalition districts being against federal law. He added that the letter never should have mentioned race, as federal law already allows partisan redistricting.
The attorneys for the civil rights organizations attempted earlier in the trial to call Kincaid to testify, but their request was denied by the judge because the subpoena was filed too late. However, state attorneys called him to testify on their behalf.
Kincaid testified for more than eight hours on Tuesday and is expected to be questioned for several more hours on Wednesday by the civil rights organizations’ attorneys.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on X/Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas redistricting map creator claims race played no factor, focused on targeting Democrats
Reporting by Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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