Our Vote Texas took action on 61 bills over the course of multiple legislative sessions this year.

Texas Redistricting Hearings in 2021

Working within the Fair Maps Texas coalition, we continued to work to build public awareness about the redistricting hearings happening across the legislative sessions. We also continued to engage with Texans in person, virtually and across social media about ways to share their community stories with lawmakers - be it through testimony, public portal commentary or letters to elected officials.

Hundreds of Texans testified both virtually and in person urging lawmakers to recognize the need for maps that accurately reflect who we are and what our communities need to thrive. The Texas Legislature passed House, Senate and Congressional maps out of the third special session all of which ignore the Black, Latinx and AAPI communities who drove much of the Texas population growth of the last decade.

The way our districts are drawn shapes everything from education, to healthcare and public safety, to the various other resources we need for the many communities throughout Texas. Texas maps should reflect the true diversity of the state and Texans have advocated tirelessly for a fair and open redistricting process.

As of this report’s posting, there are multiple lawsuits challenging these maps.

Our work is not over and we will continue to advocate for fair district drawing at the local levels as well.

Our Vote, Our Fight.

2021 has been an unrelenting attack on Texans at the ballot box and voters have pushed back on multiple efforts to silence their voice and make Texas voting senselessly more complicated.

SB 7

SB 7 was filed in the 87th regular and moved swiftly through the legislative process even as countless Texans spoke out against the bill all throughout. We raised public awareness on some of the concerning provisions of this legislation and joined with other advocacy groups in promoting calls to action to encourage Texans to testify and share their concerns with lawmakers as it moved through committee.

On the night that SB 7 could have seen passage through the House and become one step closer to becoming law, Texas lawmakers stood with Texas voters by denying the necessary quorum to conduct business and ultimately defeated the bill.

Understanding of course that we would not be seeing the last of the efforts to suppress Texas voters (indeed much of SB 7 would come back in the form of SB 1), we remain grateful for the many leaders, advocates and everyday Texans who stood together to protect the rights of some of our most vulnerable.

SB 1

SB 1 was filed in the second special session in August of 2021. Hitting Texas voters in many of the same areas as previous legislative versions, SB 1 was a bill that took away effective and popular methods of voting utilized in the 2020 election and further restricted vote by mail in a state where we need to be looking for ways to grow civic engagement, not stamp it out.

After joining with countless Texans and voting rights groups to speak out against this damaging legislation, including our petition to lawmakers urging them to vote against it, SB 1 passed and has since been signed into law by the Governor of Texas.

As of this report’s posting, there are multiple lawsuits challenging this law.

Standing Together

Our Vote Texas was proud to join advocacy groups for a Voting Rights Advocacy Day led by Common Cause Texas on July 13, 2021 to prepare Texans for the hard fight ahead as we entered the first special session in the summer of 2021.

We were also honored to join the Poor People’s Campaign, Texas Poor People’s Campaign and many others on the Moral March from Georgetown to Austin on July 30, 2021 to raise an alert on the voter suppression happening not just in Texas but in many state houses in the nation. The demonstration also served as a call on Congress and this White House to pass critical voting rights legislation, raise the minimum wage and protect our undocumented immigrant communities.

We know that it is thanks to these educational advocacy efforts that we are able to tell the story of what is happening here in Texas and what we need going forward to protect and advance our rights as voters. We thank our allies for every opportunity to unite on this important mission.

Where We Go From Here

Because Texas Progressive Action Network became Our Vote Texas ahead of the first special session, we are well positioned to continue to hone in our focus on voter education and voter rights advocacy.

We will continue to grow our legislative session Action Alerts group so that we can better track and respond to important legislation in future sessions and we will continue working to build leadership roles that unite passionate advocates to help build a Texas culture of civic engagement!

Thank you to all in the Our Vote Texas network and we look forward to continuing to work alongside you!

Thank You For Your Continued Support!