Crockett lays into Census Bureau director, says Republicans ‘apportion’ Americans of color
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) has accused Republicans of dividing millions of Texans of color to ensure the GOP gained two new seats in the House of Representatives.
In a House hearing examining the Census Bureau’s activities ahead of the 2030 census, bureau director Robert Santos faced off against Crockett as she grilled him on the racial breakdown of the 2020 census, which saw some 4 million more people added to the Texas population.
“Of those 4 million people, do you want to take a guess at how many were Anglos?” Crockett asked Santos on Thursday.
“I’d say a majority,” Santos replied.
But Crockett quickly corrected him, highlighting that only about 180,000 were white Texans.
While the 2020 census found that Texas gained the most residents of any state since 2010, the population boom was generated by people of color.
The Lone Star State’s Hispanic population is now nearly as large as the non-Hispanic white population. Of the nearly 4 million residents added to the state since 2010, 95 percent were people of color.
With the growth, Texas added two congressional seats, totalling 38 seats for the next decade.
But Crockett was outraged that the new representatives were not reflective of the 95 percent.
“We know that when it comes to minority populations, they tend to be undercounted,” Crockett said on Thursday. “So get this: We added 4 million people. They were people of color. Texas got two new seats. So they took those Black and brown and Asian bodies, and guess what? Do you think that we got a new Black, brown or Asian seat? Somehow, the way that they do their Republican math in the state of Texas, that amounted to two new white seats.”
Texas Republicans faced backlash in 2021 after proposed congressional maps reduced the number of districts where residents of color made up the majority of eligible voters.
Thursday’s hearing was the work of James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
Comer accused the Census Bureau of “substantial miscounts and discrepancies tending to benefit Democrat-run states.”
“Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of these massive errors to ensure they are not repeated in the 2030 census,” Comer said in a statement. “Additionally, current integrity issues with the census must be addressed. The Biden-Harris Administration facilitated the worst border crisis in American history, allowing millions of illegal aliens to enter and reside in our country unlawfully. To ensure only U.S. citizens are counted for the apportionment of congressional seats and electoral college votes, Congress must pass the Equal Representation Act to add a straightforward citizenship question to the Census. We look forward to hearing Director Santos’ testimony and ensuring the Census Bureau takes the necessary steps to deliver a fair and accurate 2030 census.”
But in her questioning of Santos, Crockett pushed back on Comer’s assertion that the census benefitted Democrats, as both of Texas’s new seats were won by Republicans.
“They love to use our bodies to apportion us in an inaccurate way,” Crockett said.
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