Indigenous Network had the ability to attend the ‘Redistricting Battles Erupt Ahead of Midterm Elections’ hosted by American Community Media on August 22nd 2025.
This news briefing was all about the current redistricting battles. Redistricting, normally done once a decade after the U.S. Census, has erupted into a political battle this year as Texas moves to redraw its maps to create five new Republican Congressional seats, with several other states considering the same. California has declared to counter with “trigger maps” giving Democrats greater representation if Republican plans succeed.
At this week’s briefing, provided by American Community Media, legal experts, civil rights advocates, and community leaders have examined how these moves could weaken the voting power of minority (including Indigenous communities), the lawsuits already underway, and what steps can be taken to ensure fair representation and protect hard-won voting rights.
We are seeing a breakdown of congress - and a re-emphasis on state policy and state law to protect representational rights. How can we understand fair representation through these maps?
Texas State Representative, Democrat Gene Wu said the problem has been building for years. He blamed Republican leaders for focusing on partisan control instead of fair elections. “They decided that the only way they could survive was to cheat,” Wu said. He warned that these maps could shape not only the next election but the balance of power for years to come.
Dr. Sam Wang, President of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton University, gave a broader look at the fight over maps. He said courts have cut back on extreme gerrymandering in recent years, and some states such as California, Colorado, and Michigan have made their maps more competitive. He says, “There has been national progress on gerrymandering– and courts have made it less of a case than ten years ago.” He described how the media attention is much with congressional redistricting, but perhaps we must notice our maps at a local level. “Congressional redistricting is glamorous, but state redrawing is actually doing a lot more and smaller populations like our own can do a lot more with state districts.” He encouraged voters to learn who represents them at the local level and to speak up before maps are finalized.
To find your local representative in California at the county level, residents can use online district lookup tools offered by each county. These tools allow you to enter your home address to identify your County Supervisorial District and the elected official who represents you. For example, Alameda County provides a district lookup site on its official page, while Contra Costa County has an interactive map showing district boundaries and supervisor information. Sacramento, Marin, Santa Clara, San Joaquin, and other counties across the state offer similar tools on their government websites. By using these resources, we can quickly access contact information, learn about upcoming meetings, and stay informed about decisions affecting their communities.
Adding to the discussion was Sara Rohani, Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who explained how the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder weakened key provisions of the Voting Rights Act by removing the requirement that states with a history of discrimination seek federal approval before changing voting laws or district maps.
While Rohani focused on the legal implications for minority communities at large, the ruling carries particular weight for Indigenous voters, many of whom live in rural or reservation areas now vulnerable to redistricting plans that split Native populations across multiple districts.
In states such as Texas and Arizona, where lawmakers are already moving quickly to redraw political maps, the loss of federal oversight opens the door for gerrymandering tactics that weaken Indigenous voting power at the very moment when population growth in these regions should be expanding representation, not shrinking it.
For Indigenous voters in rural or reservation areas, this ruling has real consequences. Without federal oversight, states like Texas and Arizona can now redraw districts in ways that split Native populations across several areas, leaving them with less influence even as their numbers grow.
Next we hear from Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), who underscored how Texas lawmakers are ignoring the reality of population growth in the state. He pointed out that while the Latino population has grown rapidly, lawmakers claimed they drew their maps “race-blind” even as they admitted they did not. Saenz explained that the state had to violate the Voting Rights Act to push even further than what was done in 2021, creating so-called majority Latino districts by tearing communities apart and spreading Latino voters across multiple areas in ways that weaken their overall voting power. He warned that these maps ignore both the law and demographic reality and that civil rights groups are preparing legal challenges to stop them.
As the briefing made clear, redistricting battles are not just political games. They decide whether communities, especially minority and Indigenous communities, have a fair chance at representation. With courts stepping back and states moving quickly to draw new maps, advocates say the fight for fair districts now depends on local action, legal challenges, and voters speaking up before the lines are set for the next decade.
