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- [00:05]
A
Okay. All right. Hello, hello, hello, everybody, and welcome to this special bonus episode of the Joy Reid Show. Continuing our focus on the outrage in Texas. And surprise, surprise, things have gotten even worse. Now, I want to start by reminding you of this August 13 statement from Texas Democrats denouncing Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans for putting forward an ugly voting law that would disenfranchise black Texans in an openly racist fashion by gerrymandering four black held congressional seats and one held by an Hispanic member of Congress in order to deliver five additional Republican seats to the President at his request, it would reduce the number of black Democrats, in particular by half. The statement issued by Democratic caucus chair Gene Wu after more than 50 Democrats left the state in protest of the gerrymander bid read in part. What happens next is entirely up to Greg Abbott. After deliberation among our caucus, we have reached a consensus. Texas House Democrats refuse to to give him a quorum to pass his racist maps that silence more than 2 million black and Latino Texans. In keeping with our original promise to Texans, the first called special session will never make quorum again, defeating Abbott's first attempt at passing his racial gerrymander, unquote. And just so that you understand how diabolically racist Texas Republicans are being, in pursuit of this unprecedented off census year gerrymander, I want you to take a look at this map of Texas. You see the tiny little blue spots there? Those are where the vast majority of black Texans live. Dallas county and Harris county where Houston is, plus the majority Hispanic areas where the Latino Democrats hold seats that are being targeted. And Texas is not being subtle when it comes to race based gerrymandering in a state where the single largest population group is Latinos, just like California. Under the new proposed maps, white voters would have one congressional representative for every 445,000 people. Latinos would have one representative for every 1.4 million people. And African Americans, who are about 13% of the population, would have one representative for every 2 million people. That data comes from a Democratic state. Texas state representative named Vincent Perez. Now again, it ain't subtle. Once passed, the racist Republican maps would mean that one white vote in Texas will count three times more than a Latino vote and five times more than a vote by a black Texan. And white Texans, who make up just under 40% of the population, would control 70% of the congressional districts, despite Latino voters being slightly more than 40% of the population of the state. In other words, they are completely rigging the state to ensure permanent white rule, which is also known as Apartheid. And yet, just one week after Democrats denied Republicans a quorum by physically leaving the state, heading to Chicago and New York and Massachusetts, anywhere but the Texas state legislature with supporters raising millions of dollars, Beta o' Rourke raising money, and Illinois Governor Pritzker and Gavin Newsom in California mounting an epic vow of gerrymandering retribution, this happened. Yep, a bunch of the Texas Democrats went home, where they were greeted as liberators by their supporters, although all that they actually liberated were Republicans who finally now get to have their quorum so they can immediately pass their racist maps. Is that what democracy looks like? So sorry. I mean, what were they cheering for? Again, the messaging win. Because that's not an actual win if the maps pass. Y' all do know that right now I will note the demographics of the returnees. Many were not black. Most of the black Democrats who quit the state refused to return despite bomb threats and empty threats by Republicans that they would be hunted down by the FBI and arrested for the crime of traveling. But their absence among the returnees was visually notable. And given that we don't enforce the Constitution's fugitive Slave acts anymore, the threats were actually pretty empty. But it was quickly clear that a lot of the quorum breaking Democrats really, really wanted to go home for many reasons. Some economic, others worried about losing committee assignments or facing more Republican retaliation. And some black Democrats also went home, including State Representative Nicole Collier, who took to the House floor and wound up detained. And she remains detained even as we speak, choosing to remain in the chamber rather than consent to signing this. Why don't you take a look at this? It is a permission slip to leave the House floor with a state patrol minder who would accompany the breaking Democrats home to ensure that they return to the floor on Wednesday so Republicans can vote in their racist maps. You can't quite read it on screen, but the permission slip reads that the member, in this case, State Representative Tony Rose, is, quote, granted permission to leave the hall of the House on this day in the custody of a of a design, a designated officer of the Department of Public Safety, appointed under Rule 5, Section 8 of the House Rules of Procedure. I'm sorry, what year is it? I mean, it almost is giving the passes. Enslaved people would get to work on a nearby plantation provided they promise to return after a day's labor away from the home gulag. When Representative Collier refused to sign that permission slip, she was detained inside the House chamber, where she remains today while a live cam carried on the Texas Democrats X Twitter page has her on a kind of Like Truman Show. While outside the chamber last night, three people were arrested for conducting a peaceful sit in in support of Representative Collier, including the head of the Stonewall Democrats of Austin. And as. And I will note that the peaceful protesters were a black, an Asian, and a trans woman who got arrested for standing up for a lone black woman Democrat. There they are, Sa and there you have it, all of the marginalized converging to face the demons of autocracy. But what's clear is that the drama on the Texas House floor and just outside the chamber is not actually the main event. The main event comes tomorrow when the new special session called by Governor Greg Abbott begins and Republicans pass their new gerrymandered maps that, if you can even believe it, have gotten even worse than the ones Representative Jalanda Jones showed you on this podcast on August 11th. Oh, yes, Republicans have taken their racist maps and lowered the bar even further. And joining me now to go through those new, even more horrible maps is Texas State Representative Jalanda Jones. Representative Jones, it is always good to be with you. This is becoming a regular thing. We're kind of a dynamic duo at this point.
- [08:53]
B
It is. It is. Thank you for having me. I think people need to see what's going on because it's hard to understand what it means until we give them receipts. So let's do this.
- [09:04]
A
Let's do this. And before I get to the maps, and I so appreciate you bringing those maps exclusively here to the Joy Reid Show, I want to use you as my legal analyst for a moment. I'm going to have you pivot for a moment and play legal analyst for me. I want to talk about this Rule 5, under which the. The representative is being gets detained inside the House chamber. Explain what Rule 5 is and how can it possibly be legal to hold her there.
- [09:32]
B
So I don't think it's legal, but let me tell people where they can find it if they want to follow themselves. If you Google Texas House Rules 89th legislature and put in Rule 5, Section 8, it'll come up and it's styled securing a quorum. So this rule governs what happens when they do a call of the House. So let me just explain to you in lay people's terms what happens. So let me be clear. If we don't go back and give them a quorum, none of this matters. Because the only way that they're able to even do this is if they have a quorum. So if there's a quorum, which they got on yesterday, then they have. Somebody has to Move for a call of the House is the legal terminal terminology. And then somebody's got a second it. So it's like 15 members have to do it. There's 88 Republicans, so we knew that was going to happen. And then they have a majority vote, which there's 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats. And we're not all there. So I think maybe 42 or 43 of us are there. So the people needed to implement this modern day slave patrols are there. Right. So once somebody makes a call to the House and then there's a majority vote on it, they then are ordered to lock all entrances and exits to the House floor. Like literally lock you in. Okay. And then no member can leave without written permission from the Speaker. And I'm gonna tell you how petty they're being and how mean they're being. One of our members is literally in the hospital. Sometimes people get sick, they can't be there. They want to have an excused absence. So somebody makes a motion and says, hey, the House moves to excuse such and such's absence. When they got back and got a quorum, they literally did not allow her to have an excused absence, even though she's literally in a hospital. So that's how mean they are in any way. So in any case. Yeah, so in any case. So then they have to take a call of who's all there. And again, the doors are locked. We literally can't get out. There are police at the entrance of every door and exit, so we can't get out. So if they don't give you an excuse, which they gave nobody an excuse, then you have to sign the paper that you saw that basically says, I give you permission or I submit myself to the custody of DPS for 24. 7 surveillance, which I believe is an unconstitutional detention, which violates the fourth amendment of the United States of a constitution. But that's my legal opinion, since I'm a lawyer. And so the notion that I would sign with what I call a plantation permission slip to allow the police to follow me, two officers assigned to each one of us, officers literally pulled off the street who are actually arguably preventing crime or investigating crime, and then they even switch shifts and where we have Democrats trying to figure out if there's a way for them to shake them, like literally talking about crawling out the window of their own house. So that's what you have to agree to. That's the only way you can have permission in is to subject yourself to these slave patrols or the overseer, because that's what it reminds me of like people on a plantation, a man on a horse. And if you don't, which. Which Nicole refused to do, then they can lock you in the at the House floor, which is what they've done. So every other Democrat who came back and it was only made to apply to the Democrats who corn broke, then they all had to sign that permission slip. So that is what is going on. Nicole literally cannot leave unless she in writing says, I give you permission to oversee me. And so that's what the rule says.
- [13:40]
A
So I'm gonna post the entirety of Rule 5, Section 8. It's a B0 if we have it here to put up on screen, but I'm gonna read just this piece of it for absentees without sufficient excuse, the House may order the that they be sent for and arrested by the sergeant at arms or an authorized officer, wherever they may be found, to ensure their attendance. And the House will determine conditions of their discharge. I'm just reading you that is what that rule is that they're using to detain her. But what I want to also just ask you really quick, my last thing I'm going to ask you to do as my legal analyst today, her attorneys have now filed a writ of habeas corpus. And their reasoning in that writ, to put it in layman's terms, is that they are detaining her subject to this rule, which is supposed to be when the House is in session, but the session doesn't start till tomorrow. So what they're saying is there's no hearing, so she cannot be detained even under this rule. Can you explain that and what a writ of habeas corpus is?
- [14:32]
B
Yes, so I can. A writ of habeas corpus is when the government has you illegally detained under the Constitution and you file that, it literally will release your body from custody is what a writ of habeas corpus is in lay people's terms. So let me make a slight correction. Actually. This second special session started on Friday, but we take recesses. So on yesterday, there was a recess until Wednesday, which is tomorrow. So there's nothing on the House floor. We're not back in session until tomorrow, where we need to have another quorum. And so they are saying, I guess they have a crystal ball. I mean, I would respectfully argue to you if she came back this time, she was going to probably come back on Wednesday. So how are you detaining her when there's literally nothing on the House floor for her to vote on? And so I do believe it is an illegal Seizure of her body on the House floor, which is actually reminiscent of the slavery days where they literally controlled our bodies, our black bodies, and they are doing the same thing.
- [15:40]
A
It is insane to me that a state in the year of our Lord 2025 can literally say, we will detain you on this floor. You will be here to let us vote to disenfranchise your people. You will stand here and witness your people losing power. And you will not leave until we finish. It is insane. All right, let's move on to the actual maps. Let's talk about the actual meat of the matter. Okay, I want to go through. And we're going to go through these one by one, everyone. And we're going to put these maps up on screen. We're going to start with B1.
- [16:10]
B
And the first just. You got to remind me, Joy, because I actually sent you these maps on yesterday, and so I've got to pull them up because there's a lot of them.
- [16:20]
A
Absolutely.
- [16:21]
B
What you're looking at.
- [16:22]
A
I'm going to remind you all that the representative, she sent me, as she did the last time the representative sent me maps and charts that we're going to go through one by one. So this first one is called Harris county voting in 2024. And this is the full map with lots of red around it and blue in the middle. That is all of what Harris county did in 2024 and what it would look like under the new regime.
- [16:44]
B
Okay, I'm looking at it, and you're welcome because I know I like receipts. I love.
- [16:50]
A
Listen, by the way, I love receipts. But the only thing I love more than receipts is actually maps. I am a map fan. So you hit on the right sister. You found the right sister. Because I love a map. Explain this map to us.
- [17:02]
B
Okay, so if you look, this shows where the Democratic vote was in Harris county, which is where I live, and where the Republican vote is. The deeper the blue is Democrat, the deeper the red is Republican. And if you will look at the numbers in the map, right? So you see the number 29. You see the number 7. You see the number 18 prior to these new maps. So this is the proposed map that passed out of the House Redistricting committee yesterday. As soon as they got a quorum, the districts that are going to be blue are Texas 29, which was always blue, but it's a different demographic. Texas 9, which if you look, Texas 9 is not blue anymore. Texas 9 is actually red. So they literally took a black man. Al green represents CD 9. Texas 9 in the Texas 18. So they basically shifted the Democratic votes and just are going to have people voting for people that they never voted for in areas that they never voted for them. That's what that map shows, is showing.
- [18:12]
A
Let's go to B2. Now, B2 is a statewide look, and this is called statewide plan. And it's going to show. It's a larger map that's going to show. It's got like the little mini maps on the side and. And it shows the entire state with the new map superimposed on it. So that one is.
- [18:31]
B
I've got to find. I've got to find it.
- [18:36]
A
I don't know if you can see it in the screen.
- [18:38]
B
I can. Okay, well, but if what I can do is I can like open it up. Right. Which will help me just to be able to see it. And there are, there's so many maps. But what I can tell you. Talk to me about what you're going to say and I'm almost certain I can go and tell you why it's important.
- [18:59]
A
Absolutely. So in this particular map, what you're seeing is the whole state, where most of the state is untouched. You can see there's not like red squiggly lines around most of the state. And you'll note, as I showed you earlier, most of the state is quite Republican. Those areas remain untouched. But you can actually see where the work is being done on these maps that are just in the center of the state, in the parts of the state where Dallas county and also where Harris county are. So that's what this map is showing, that under these new maps, these are the squiggly lines that will change.
- [19:31]
B
So let me, let me tell you something. So the reason. So Texas is enormous. And as you saw before in the first map that you showed us, that most black districts and brown districts are in two places in the Harris county area and in the Dallas county area. So if you look at the maps in the corners, it breaks down those regions. So, for example, in the very top one, if you look to know which map is the red map, the red numbers are the current maps. Like, so if we were to run right now, this, these are the areas, the black numbers are the new maps. Right. So the proposed ones that passed out of the committee yesterday with along Democratic lines. I mean, sorry, along party lines with the Republicans eviscerating the Democrats. And I would respectfully submit to you that when the Democrats lost, Texas lost. Black and brown folks lost in the United States lost. So if you look in the corner, if you go down and you look where it says 29, 18 and 7, if you look around CD18, the current one is look at the black 18. If you look at the black 18, look at the red squiggly lines around it. And that is where the, where they're saying the new or the old CD18, where the new CD18 is. Black is new. Right. If you look, if you go up and you find the Red 18, it's all the way to the. What is that up and to the left of that, that is the new CD18.
- [21:23]
A
Let's move on to the next one because I'm going to zoom in because you can, you're going to be able to explain that better with the zoom in. So we have a zoom in for y'. All. So we're going to zoom in first and I want to remind you all, we're going to go to B3, which is the old one. The last time that Representative Jones and I did this, we showed you this map. Now this is what the representative was just talking about. The, the black or the new. And this was on the old map that you all left the state to try to get away from. So you all. And that was done. Now let's go to B4, which is the new version of that same map which you have reported to me. They have very rapidly changed it Again, here's the new version of that zoom in on what 9 and 18 look like now. So explain that one.
- [22:08]
B
Yes. So the new map is the, are the black numbers. The existing maps are the red numbers. So if you look at the bottom, you will see a black 18 under the new one. That is where the new CD18 is. And it is, it is surrounded by like, is that tan? So that's the new CD18. Right. If you go find the red CD18, which is the existing one, you go look up, up and to the left where you see red under Harris. That is the old CD18. So the new CD18 does not look like the current CD18. It is literally redistributed the population to have people voting in CD18 that didn't used to vote in CD18. If you go down under that black 18, which is a new one, see CD9, the black CD18 used to be CD9. So people who were used to voting for Congressman Al Green are now going to be voting for somebody running for CD18. So people are used to voting for who they're used to voting for. And so it's going to confuse a lot of people. And it is just wrong. So, and they have done this in all the places. Basically what they've gone and done is they found where there is an organic majority minority district, say where black people and brown people sort of have, over decades have just sort of moved together and they are literally cracking them. So they're targeting them strategically, cracking them open and packing them in the various districts to dilute the power. Not only are they doing that, they are also moving districts from where they weren't, which is going to confuse people. But if you go and, and look at the maps for the entire state, they're not surgically cutting up white districts. White districts are the same. People are used to voting for who they vote for. They're used to voting in their certain polling places. That is what they are used to. So they are confusing us, dividing us, and they're not doing the same thing to white people, which means they're racist.
- [24:34]
A
Let me go to B5 because this shows this. You also sent us some charts, Representative, that actually make it even clearer, folks, because these are the actual numbers. So first I'm going to show you B5. And this is the B5 chart that representative Jones brought us the first time that we did this live. And so this is the old gerrymandering plan. And so what you can see on this, I'm going to make it clearer for myself here that in the old version of CD9, Congressional District 9, they were taking away, they were leaving CD9 in the new maps before with only 34.4% of its original population. And if you go across, what you'll see is the fourth line down, everybody who's looking at the screen, the fourth line down is gonna tell you the Anglo quote, unquote population, this is their language. And then next to it is the non Anglo. So they've gotten it so surgical, Representative, that they're saying, here's how many Anglo voters are here, here's how many non Anglo voters are here. So you can just go across and you can see where that Anglo population versus non Anglo population is. And so what they're saying is that CD9, which used to only have 12.6% white voters and 87.4% non white voters, they are only leaving a third of those people still in that district. And now let's go to the new version. So then you can explain this new version. And this is B5. This is going to be the chart that explains how the new CD9 is going to look.
- [26:04]
B
Okay, so let me represent, let me just explain what they're looking at. I want to show you what you're looking at. So if you look at the top, it says Plan C 2333. That is the new plan, right? And then Plan C 2193 is the current plan. The maps that we currently live under. If you see where it says CD9 under the proposed plan, which is CD9, they're taking from CD number two, which let me. That's a white person, right? That is Dan Crenshaw. You guys may know who Dan Crenshaw is. Dan Crenshaw is that is that representative who wears a patch over his eye. They are taking 12.6% of his constituents, which are very Republican, and. And they are moving them into the current CD9. If you go down under that, under the current CD9, they're only keeping 2.9% of the current CD9 in the proposed CD9. If you look at CD18, they're not taking any of the black people or anybody from CD18 and putting them in CD9. So they ain't trying to give them no black people or no brown people in CD9. And then you will see that they are putting 43.7% of CD29, which is currently represented by Sylvia Garcia, they are taking 43.7% of her constituents, which are overwhelmingly Hispanic, and they are putting them in the proposed CD9. And then they are taking 40.7% of CD36, which is a white person, and. And they are putting it in CD9. So they have literally made CD9 be more Republican and more Hispanic when Congressman Green currently represents them. So they have guaranteed that a black person can't win that like it currently is now. And they have stacked the deck for either Hispanic Republicans or a white Republican to win a seat that that was historically black.
- [28:14]
A
And by the way, the reason that the, you know, and the maps that the representative sent me are long, long pages, but I cut it up this way very deliberately and intentionally. If you look above this, everyone in CD8, note that CD8 is keeping 65.8% of its former self. And if you go below to CD10, Congressional District 10. Congressional District 10 is holding on to 55.8% of its former self. So. So what you're seeing is they're not stacking and packing 8 and 10, which are not black majority districts, they're stacking and packing 9. They are white districts, so they get to hold on to their traditional populations, but 9 gets gutted. This is so clear. You can see it on the map where you see the 9 and the 18 moving around. You can see it even more now with the numbers. Let's go to the next slide here, which I believe is. Let's go to. I think it's six. Let's go to the prompter here. Let me see. Okay, I'm going to go here and see if I can figure out. I think we are going to go now to B6. Okay, so this is B6. This is what we had previously shown that, Representative, you brought us about 18 and 19. I wanted to compare congressional district 18, which, as you describe, is the most historic. This is Barbara Jordan's historic district. This is. Sylvester Turner was in this district. Sheila Jackson Lee, who you all remember, she was in this district as well. This is what you brought us before, Representative. And at this point, when you were talking with us on our previous live, 37.8% of the old CD18 was going to remain in the district. And. And they were stacking it full of about a little bit of District 9 and a little bit. And about, you know, 27% of District 9. Well, no, they were stacking.
- [30:08]
B
They were stacking. It was 70.7% of District 9 is what they were doing last time. So they basically were trying to collapse CD18 and CD9 so that there's only one black person, except that they hijacked 18 to really make it nine, which meant that we only had the opportunity to elect one black person instead of the two we currently have that were very strong for black people.
- [30:33]
A
And then let's talk about CD 19. And the reason I put 19 here, which was separated by a page, because 19 had a lot of stuff being done to it, too. You can see that 19 also had itself carved up a little bit. It kept about half of what it was. Now, let's go to the new charts that you sent us. This is seven. This is number seven, because this is stark. The next chart that we're going to show you is what is being done to 18 and 19. Now look at how close they are together, because ain't nothing being done to 19. 19 keeps 100% of its original constituents. Not 99, not 98. 100% stays in 19. But describe for us, Representative, what happens to 18.
- [31:16]
B
So in 18, 18 is only keeping 25.8% of its current constituency. They are taking 64.5% of Congressman Greens and putting it into 18, which is why 18, when you look at that other map, went down. Right. Because Congressman Green's district was below 18. They are taking 0.8% from 7, which is a white district. They are taking 0.6% from 22, which is a white district, and they are taking 8.2% of 29, which is a Hispanic district. So they have, for all intents and purposes, totally reconfigured CD18. So it's not going to be the historic place that Congresswoman Barbara Jordan represented, that Congressman Mickey Leland represented, that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee represented Craig Washington or Sylvester Turner. They have fundamentally changed the character of it and what they also have done when they have taken out the over almost 75% of what used to be CD18, they literally took acres homes, which is historic. It is one of the first places that when we found out all these years too late that we were free from slavery, they went and started their own city of acres homes, where everybody had homes on an acre lot, right. And other historic places, and literally carved them out of 18 and put them in CD 29 in a Latino district. So that historically high voting area of black people they removed from the herd. And they literally have no political power to vote for the representative of their choice. It is clearly racist, but they have made sure with all these maps that the white majorities are preserved in their districts, but they carve up again, that's called cracking and packing the black and brown communities. And the crazy thing is in that redistricting committee hearing yesterday, where there was no testimony, there were no public hearings, where the person, Rep. Todd Hunter, who laid the maps, literally, when people were asking him, tell us what's changed, he's like, oh, not that much. Not really that much. That is a. That is just not true. These numbers, these receipts show that they actually made it worse. And we actually thought, when we saw the other ones that I gave you that we didn't think it was going to be as bad as that was. We didn't realize that it could be worse, but trust me, it's worse. And now that they have a quorum, which is why I did not come back, because I knew that they were going to shove this down our throats and that's exactly where we are. And we are loathe to stop it because 62 doesn't beat 88. And because we're not all there again, I think there's only 42 or 43 of us, then they're going to pass. As soon as they get it on the House floor is going to pass and we are instantaneously going to lose two black seats. And I would respectfully submit to you that the Hispanic Democratic seats that we have, because they've targeted the concentrations of Hispanics. We're going to lose those as well. And Trump is going to get five seats.
- [34:28]
A
Indeed. And I want to make sure that you all really hone in on what you are seeing in front of you. If you go to 1, 2, 3, the fourth row, the fourth column on this chart that the representative provided for us. It is rare in Texas, which no longer has a white majority. Okay? White Texans are 40% of the population, just under 40, and Latinos are just over 40%. That is why Texas is no longer a majority white state. But the district 19, that's got the little star on it, it is 50%, 50.2% Anglo. And Anglo is the term they use. They literally go through and not only do they delineate the Anglo versus non Anglo percentage, which is that fourth and fifth column. It's 50.2% Anglo 4, 49.8% non Anglo, rare in Texas. It keeps all, all of its original constituency to ensure it remains Republican. And you look right above it, 18 is being carved up like Swiss cheese. And it is absorbing District 18, which is Congressman Green's district, literally eating it almost whole in order to ensure eating. I'm sorry, District 9, almost whole, which is al Greens district, in order to ensure that black folks now go from four seats to two. This is such open racist gerrymandering that as you said, I think you might have said this the other day. Stevie Wonder could see it.
- [36:05]
B
Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller could all see it.
- [36:08]
A
All, all can see it. And so now the question, Representative, is what now? Because this is, this is a. The Democrats were back getting cheered as if they'd won something. It's clear that they, not only did they lose, but it's over. Now what do we do?
- [36:23]
B
Oh, it's a. So I mean, this is my struggle. And I'll go back and talk if you were to continue to go down the line, just like they identified white people, they also identified black people, they also identified Hispanic people. And they have made sure that, that they have diluted the power of black people and brown people in all of these districts. And they also, I mean, if you don't understand these maps, these maps talk about voting age population and non voting age populations in most instances. So, like, you know, you might have a Hispanic family of 10 and maybe only four of them are able to vote. So it looks like there's more of them there, but really only four of the 10 are able to vote. They even narrow it down to that. And when you Go back and you look at these numbers that were on your screen and I hope they go back and look at the substack. What they're going to see is they made sure to make it look like there are a lot of Hispanic people, but they made sure that there was only a small number of voting age population. And on top of that, they put Anglos there who they made sure they voted so that those small number of Anglos will outvote the, the, I guess, insufficient number of voting age population, Hispanics. They were precise. And the problem is the maps are going to. Are going to change. They're going to pass. And again, that's why I'm not there, because even if I were there, Even if all 62 of us were there, we were never going to beat the 88 Republicans because the 88 Republicans are back, which is why I was never coming back. And it's interesting because I'm a lawyer and I know how to lay the legal foundation so that we could have a chance in court. To the extent I have my hope in the Trump Supreme Court to keep black and brown voting rights, I don't have a lot of faith in that. Some people do. I don't. But really the only power we had to stop them from conducting business was to hold a quorum, because if we held a quorum, we literally wouldn't have these maps. These maps are going to pass. And so now we've just got to figure out. Now, like I say, I was going to go back just to see if I could help lay a legal framework to help the Supreme Court land where it should be under the law. But I'll be damned if I'm going to take my. My narrow butt. My mother used to say that to me when I was little. Back to Texas with the damn slave patrols. I'm not about to sign no piece of paper giving me, giving the plantation permission to have an overseer over me. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to have the police outside of my house. I'm not going to give up my constitutional right to privacy, my constitutional right to travel, my constitutional right to protest, which is a First Amendment right. If I don't want to vote for those maps, I shouldn't have to. If I don't want to go to the House floor, I shouldn't have to. To protest. I. I'm not about to have you drag my black behind back to the House floor to participate and be complicit in the oppression of black and brown people. In Texas, it's not going to happen. So I'm forced to be where I am because I'm not subjugating myself to that. It is 20, 25. It is not 1825. And I be damned. I be damned. And it's not an escort, right? It's not an escort. It's a freaking overseer. So in any case, it is very, very, very frustrating to me. And I don't know. I don't know. We don't. We don't beat it. I mean, we just don't beat it. Because at the end of the day, the Texas legislature is like Survivor and, you know, I was on the TV show Survivor, and on Survivor, I didn't know how to count. I was on a team of nine. In an alliance of three, three never beat six. It's the same way in the House. A team of 62 never beats a team of 88. But apart from that, there's only a team of 42 or 43. It's never going to be 88. And they're being vindictive, just like Trump. So we've lost this. And so now all we can do is hope that the United States Supreme Court values our voting rights. And I just don't think that they are. I hope that. That they do. I hope that California is able to redistrict all the Republicans out in every other Democratic state. But let me be clear, even if California does that, even if New York does that, that doesn't change the fact that, period, point blank, full stop, whenever these maps pass, and they're either going to pass the House because they've already passed out of the Senate, and once they pass out of the House, the only thing left to do is for the governor to sign it. We are, like, immediately gonna lose two black seats, and that's just wrong. It's two left feet.
- [41:10]
A
Yeah. And I just wanna close by saying that the reason this is important is the single largest number of black people in the country live in the state of Texas. I know people think it's Mississippi, but it's not. It's Texas. And so we're talking about disenfranchising more black people in, in one vote than have been disenfranchised since the fall of Reconstruction. I think we need to make it that clear. Since the Redemption period and the 1877 compromise, never have we had this kind of a destruction of black power. The only other thing I can sort of say is equivalent is the 2014 and 2010. Well, actually, the 2010 midterms in which a majority of black legislators who are state legislators like the representative, were actually legislating in majorities. 2010 was a destructive, you know, I call it an Armageddon midterm in which the turnout wasn't there. Barack Obama people were too satisfied. It was a complete devastation. And then by 2014, black legislators like Representative Jones were not anymore in the majority. They were in the minority. And now we're talking about eviscerating black power in the state of Texas. Representative Jones, I know that you are running for reelection. If people want to support you, how can they do that?
- [42:28]
B
So let me be clear. I'm running for Congress. That CD 18, that's now lower than it was before with all the new people. I'm running for Congress. Here's the problem. I'd always said if some kind of way of quorum is established, I would go back and try to help lay a legal framework to hopefully get the Supreme Court to give a damn about us. But since they got the Fugitive Slave act going and since they got overseers and slave patrols trying to get us, I can't go back. I literally cannot go back and campaign for CD18. And so I'm stuck in an undisclosed location. And so I'm asking people like, if you want somebody who's going to always come with facts, who's going to always come with receipts to help you understand exactly what they trying to do to us. I'm asking you to support me. I'm asking you to go to my website, www.jolandajones.com and let me tell you how to spell my name because it's a made up black name. My mother liked the name Yolanda. She did. Like very many black mothers do. She wanted me to have my daddy's initials. My daddy's name is John. So she took away the Y and added a JJ. So it's jolandajones.com Go look at my platform and click the donate button and please. Because when they come for me, and they are coming for me, right, they're coming for me right now in Houston. I need to have money, one to defend myself, and I need to be able to put mail in the mailboxes to remind people who I am. And I would love to do nothing more than go fight with Jasmine. Right? Can you imagine two legally educated black women, both of whom happen to go to the University of Houston Law School, giving trump the blues with receipts, right? Not with esoteric, theoretical, you know, philosophies or saying they're, they're screwing Black people or they're screwing Hispanic people, and you need to fight. I'm going show you maps. They literally have moved CD18 lower. They've changed the constituency and the configuration, and they're taking black people and they're putting them here and there. You're not going to see that from anybody. I'm going to come with facts. If all we do is bump our gums, that's not nothing. If we come with facts and receipts, and then we're better able to get the people behind us. So I'm asking you to go to www.madeupblacknamejolandajones.com, push the donate button and vote for me. I mean, sorry, and contribute to my campaign. But apart from that, the only way that we stop what's going on is we have to vote because the game is fixed in Texas. It's rigged. It's going to be very hard for black folks to have the representation that we need, and Hispanic folks as well. And we're going to have to vote like our lives and our grandchildren's lives depended on it. And that's just what we're going to have to do. And again, so long as I get information, you will remember this, Joy. When I talked, I say, hey, May. Hey, May. I've got these new maps. I need for you to see them because I thought it couldn't get worse. It's worse. And you picked it up just like that. And I also want to say this. Mainstream media has called me to ask me to explain the new maps, because no one has been explaining new maps except for me. And I told them, you know what? And this was yesterday, because the maps got filed yesterday. What y' all gonna have to do is y' all gonna have to watch Joy, because Joy is gonna have the maps right? Because black people is more important now than ever. We need to stick together. We need to support each other. We need to promote each other like we did during segregation. Because at least in segregation, we understood that if we didn't lift each other up, then we weren't going to get lifted. Problem is, a lot of people have gotten real comfortable with integration, and some people have made it. And the bottom line is we better get together like we did during the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted over a year. The black community made sure we all got to work, we didn't have to walk, and we supported each other. So I decided to give these maps to a black journalist because that's just the right thing to do. So I'm asking black people if you want somebody who believes in the power of us because we are the ones who are being targeted more than anybody. If you looked at those maps, Joy, let me be clear. The four districts that are absolutely targeted to get rid of people, the other ones, they've diluted it. Maybe if people vote high, they might be are the black ones in Texas because we both the highest for Democrats. So they pit Jasmine Crockett against Mark Veazey. That's black seats in Dallas. And they pitt Al Green, I don't know, potentially against me. These maps, when these maps pass and they're going to pass, so they coming for us and they coming for us hard. And if you think I'm about to sit there and just be a, a steel target now, you don't know me like that. I'm from the hood, right? And so we got, we got to fight, Joy. We got to vote and we have to educate people. And I'm telling you, you don't think that this matters. Them three seats they stole in North Carolina last year in 2024 are the three vote majority Trump needed to kick us all off, a lot of us off health care, Medicare and Medicaid to steal our freaking Social Security, even though we paid into it. That's our damn retirement. To deport like us citizens, to separate families, to have people come and get you, to jump out, boys come and get you, leaving kids without parents, which is why we paying these high tariffs where all of our groceries are more expensive because the farmers can't farm because the shit is too expensive. And so they're passing the cost off to us. If you think it can't get worse, it can donate to my campaign so I can take my little narrow behind, like my mom used to say to Congress with receipts and an unapologetic belief in black people and brown people and the contributions we made to this damn country. And I'm going to go there and I'm going to fight and I need your support because I cannot submit myself to plantation permission slips. I cannot allow the police to. To oversee me. And we know as black people after we were no longer enslaved because we were never slaves. We were enslaved after that they created the police to bring us back to states that would work the fields as sharecroppers, sew people's houses, put our stuff in they white kids and raise their kids and nurse their kids and to bring us back into the plantation. And as I'm going to say this again, it is 2025. I'm not about to submit myself because I cannot go back home and campaign like I would ordinarily do. Please donate to my campaign. I need it. I shouldn't have to pick between for my constituents in House District 147, which147. I share constituents in Texas 18, Texas 9, and Texas 29. And my constituents have said, go, Cornbreak. And when we're there, stay there. When the other people came back, don't go back. Fight for us, Jawanda. Fight for us. I shouldn't have to choose between fighting as a state rep and running for Congress. And I shouldn't be pitted against another black person.
- [49:52]
A
That's indeed, State Representative Jalanda Jones. I appreciate you. And listen, that was a shout out. That was an unsolicited shout out. So I appreciate the unsolicited shout out for independent media and for black journalists. You're absolutely right. This is a really critical time. Texas is the zero hour. Texas is the center of the fight right now, y'. All. It is all about Texas, because as Texas goes, so goes the country. State Representative Jalanda Jones. We're gonna make sure we put that link below so that people can support you and support your campaign. We appreciate you. And look, we want all four of these black seats, these black members to remain in Congress. We're going to keep fighting for that. And look, the next pivot, y', all, I'm going to tell you that right now, those of you who are listening is going to be to fight for every single one of these seats and hopefully give them an unpleasant surprise. State Representative Jelana Jones, thanks for bringing the receipts and the maps. We appreciate you. Thank you.
- [50:46]
B
Thank you, Joy. I appreciate you. Keep doing what you're doing.
- [50:50]
A
Thank you. All right, y', all. So that's it. You heard it here. We have shown you the receipts, we have shown you the maps. We have shown you the charts and the numbers. If you want to go into even more microscopic detail on all of these things, I'm going to put the maps and the charts on the substack. Joannread.com, you can go over there. You can subscribe to joannread.com, you can subscribe for free. If you do not want to be a paid subscriber, that is fine. I'm going to keep it off of the paywall so that everyone can read it and share it. We're also going to put links to. To Representative Jones's page below and also on the substack. And we're going to go into even greater detail. So keep up with this. Story, y'. All. It's not just about what Gavin Newsom is doing in California. The real fight is in Texas. And unfortunately, Democrats are about to lose round one of the fight. This is a great betrayal of democracy and of black power. Thank you all for tuning in to the Joy Reid Show. Thanks to everybody who's tuning in not just on the YouTube channel, but also on substack, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, everywhere that you guys are listening to this live. Hopefully you all will join this fight. Support independent media. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Don't be a lurker. Be a subscriber so that you can continue to get this content that is crucial and that you're not going to get from the mainstream. Thank you all for tuning in to this special edition of the Joy Reid show and we will see you again on Wednesday at 7pm Eastern Standard Time right here on the Joy Reid Show Channel.
- [52:21]
B
Bye bye.
- [52:25]
A
Thank you all for tuning in. Be sure to like and subscribe share this this channel. Make sure that everybody subscribed to the YouTube channel. 70% of people are lurking watching these shows and not subscribing.
- [52:37]
B
Why would you do that?
- [52:38]
A
So make sure that you like, subscribe and throw some comments. And thank you all for joining the Joy Reach. I'll see you on the next one. And goodbye for now.