On Monday, the Senate and House held redistricting hearings in Austin and Arlington. It comes after the House heard from a packed University of Houston room over the weekend.
The testimony went on so long, it was eventually cut off. Jerome Wald was able to give comments before the meeting ended.
"My final line was actually somewhat biblical, which is, 'Do unto others as you would have them done to you,'" Wald recalled.
Wald said he is concerned minority communities will be impacted if lawmakers create new districts. He's not alone.
Arnetta Yardbourgh submitted written testimony this weekend.
"It's unfair," Yardbourgh said. "They need to not do this redistricting in our area."
While both submitted testimony at the meeting, they were limited in how they could provide feedback. The reason why is that despite holding hearings, lawmakers have not released proposals.
"I don't know what the 'this' is," Wald said. "It's not clear. The sad part is it feels very underhanded and hidden."
"It would be nice to see a map," Yardbourgh said. "Like, what are they working to create? What does that look like? How are they going to change the boundaries and the borders of the community? That would be important to know."
Governor Greg Abbott put redistricting on the special session agenda. ABC13 confirmed President Donald Trump told Texas GOP members he wants to flip five democratic seats.
Normally, the redistricting process is done every ten years, using new census data. The current maps are just four years old.
"It's possible, if republicans go for it all and flip the maximum number of seats, somewhere between four and five, we could see a substantial change in the districts where Houston residents live," Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said.
That means who represents you in Congress could change soon. It's an issue that has led Democrats to hold news conferences and protests.
As for Republicans, when we were in Austin for the start of the special session, some declined interviews to avoid discussing redistricting.
"This is really a no-win situation for most republicans," Jones said. "Most of these republican lawmakers don't want to be doing it and don't think it's a good idea, but do not want to say that publicly because it's something that President Trump wants to be done."
Jones said it shouldn't be much longer before lawmakers release map proposals.
"This is a 30-day session," Jones explained. "The clock is ticking. There really isn't much time to hold hearings after maps are released. Even if they were released today, they have to be approved by both the House and the Senate."
The Senate has a redistricting hearing scheduled for Tuesday. The House doesn't have any additional hearings scheduled at this time.
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