✊🏽 Redistricting Isn’t Just About Maps. It’s About Power—Ours.
- yanira.borges
- May 31
- 4 min read
This isn’t just about politics. It’s about what kind of future we get to live in.
Tarrant County is in the middle of a redistricting process that most of us didn’t ask for and weren’t told about. And unless we speak up, it could reshape our communities for the next decade or more—in ways that weaken representation, suppress voices, and protect power for the few.
Redistricting isn’t just drawing new lines. It’s a way to redraw the rules. To decide who gets counted, who gets heard, and who gets ignored.
And when it’s done unjustly, we all feel it.
Even if the line doesn’t run through our street, the impact does.
📉 What Redistricting Really Means (For All of Us)
✅ Less funding for our schools, streets, and services
✅ Less say in who represents us—and what they fight for
✅ More division in our communities, making it harder to organize and be heard
✅ More power in the hands of those who already have it
We’ve seen this before—in Texas, in North Carolina, in states across the U.S.
When leaders redraw maps to protect themselves instead of the people, we all lose.
🚨 What’s Happening in Tarrant County Right Now
Tarrant County commissioners—led by Matt Krause—are proposing a mid-decade redistricting plan, even though redistricting usually only happens after the census, every 10 years. Why this rushed, behind-closed-doors redistricting effort?
🗺️ Their goal? To redraw precincts to create a 4–1 Republican majority, even in areas where the population has grown more diverse and more progressive.
⚠️ This would:
Split apart communities of color
Reduce representation for Black, Latino, and immigrant communities
Shift power away from working families, women, and everyday voters
The vote is set for Tuesday, June 3, 2025. And they’re hoping we stay quiet.
🧡 Why She Dares Is Speaking Up
Because this affects every single one of us—not just those in the redrawn districts.
When our systems become rigged, it’s women, children, caregivers, and working families who pay the price first. We feel it in the policies passed. The funding cut. The support denied.
But we are not powerless. We are not invisible. We are a collective. And we dare to stand for our people and our future.
⚠️ Local mayors, council members, and organizers are urging a pause—and so are we.
✨ Here’s How You Can Get Involved
📚 Educate yourself & your circle: Learn the facts about what’s happening here.
🗣️ Contact your commissioner: Let them know you oppose mid-decade redistricting and want transparency. (See the contact list below)
🚫 Say No to Redistricting: fill out this form
🧡 Support local organizers: Groups across Fort Worth and Tarrant County are fighting this in the courts and on the ground. Show up. Share their message. Donate if you can. Check out Tarrant for Change, 817Podcast and more.
📆 Speak out at the next public meeting:
Date: Tuesday, June 3
Where: Commissioners Court Meeting Details Here
What to say: “We are watching. We are paying attention. We want fair maps.”
🔁 Share this with your community. Because if they can do this quietly, they’ll keep going. If we make noise—they’ll have to listen.
We dare to protect democracy.
We dare to protect each other.
We dare to protect our future.
Call and email Tim O’Hare and your commissioner to tell them you support the current county court map unchanged.
COUNTY JUDGE – Tim O’Hare
Phone: 817-884-1441
Address: 100 East Weatherford Street, Suite 501 Fort Worth, Texas 76196, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Email: tjohare@tarrantcountytx.gov
COMMISSIONER PRECINCT 1 – Roderick Miles Jr
Phone: 817-531-5600
Email: rfmiles@tarrantcountytx.gov
COMMISSIONER PRECINCT 2 – Alisa Simmons
Phone: 817-248-6099
COMMISSIONER PRECINCT 3 – Matt Krause
Phone: 817-248-6295
Email: mhkrause@tarrantcountytx.gov
COMMISSIONER PRECINCT 4 – Manny Ramirez
Phone: 817-238-4400
The More You Know:
Redistricting Definitions
Census: The official count from the U.S. Commerce Department determining the population and racial makeup at the census block level. The census is conducting every ten years and is used to assure one-person-one-vote requirements during redistricting.
District: A geographic area represented by an elected official such as a congressional district, a State House district, and a county commissioner precinct.
Redistricting: The process of drawing new boundaries for electoral districts, typically done every 10 years following the release of a new census.
Mid-Decade Redistricting: The unusual circumstance of district boundaries being redrawn in the absence of a new census. The process typically takes place only when existing districts have been ruled to be in violation of the law.
Reapportionment: The process of reallocating seats in a legislative body based on population changes. (The most common example is states gaining or losing congressional seats following the release of a new census).
Gerrymandering: Manipulating district boundaries to favor a particular racial, political, or other group.
Racial Gerrymandering: Drawing districts to dilute the voting strength of a legally protected racial minority or to improperly enhance the voting strength of a nonprotected racial group.
Partisan Gerrymandering: Drawing districts to favor one political party over another.
The Voting Rights Act (VRA): A landmark federal law originally enacted in 1965 to prohibit voting discrimination through the erecting of barriers to voting, unfair district boundaries, and other efforts to undermine minority voting strength. While the VRA has been weakened by recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, intentionally targeting minority voters to undermine and dilute their voting strength remains a violation of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.
Contiguity: A requirement that districts be connected, with no part geographically isolated from the rest.
Compactness: A measure of the degree to which a district is geographically tight and without or with few extensions.
Community of Interest: A principle that a group of individuals share certain common concerns, goals and values. The group may or may not be within a geographically compact area.
Voting Age Population (VAP): Voting age population is the number of persons 18 years of age or older within a defined jurisdiction (eg. state, county, city, district). It can be divided by race and gender. VAP is a precise enumeration calculated down to the census block level and released as part of the decennial census.
Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP): The voting age population of persons who are also United States citizens. CVAP is an estimated count based on information gathered by the American Community Survey (ACS) and released as a five year average updated each year. It is not a precise enumeration but an estimate calculated down to groups of census blocks.
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