Illinois A.G.: We Gerrymandered After Census and Have Racial Diversity

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (D) responded to a question on how Illinois has drawn its lines by stating that they drew theirs after the Census and they have racial diversity in their legislature, while Texas “is seeking to reduce the representation of African Americans in Congress. That’s certainly violative of the spirit of the Voting Rights Act.”

Guest host Victor Blackwell asked, “Texas Republicans have folded Illinois’ gerrymandering into their defense of what they’re doing in Texas and saying, well, look, look at Illinois and how they have changed the lines there. The Brennan Center, which is left of center, pointed out that Illinois Republicans have fewer seats now than they did since before the Civil War. And so, what do you say to those who say, if Democrats are complaining about Texas, where was all of this disapproval when it came to the lines in Illinois?”

Raoul answered, “I say a couple of things: One, the Texas Constitution calls for redistricting right on the heels of the…Census delivering data for redistricting, not in the middle of a decade. We, in Illinois, have done so consistent with that, we get the results of the Census, and we do so. The other thing that we observe here in the state of Illinois, and I’m very proud of it, because I was in the legislature and I carried legislation for the Illinois Voting Rights Act and for voting rights being enshrined in our constitution, you look at our legislature, you see diversity. You don’t see a reduction of African American seats, like what’s being proposed in Texas. Texas, the state with the largest number of African American citizens in the United States of America, is seeking to reduce the representation of African Americans in Congress. That’s certainly violative of the spirit of the Voting Rights Act. Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. It’s unconscionable and abhorrent that they’d be trying to do something like this.”

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