(The Center Square) – A Washington state Senator who was gerrymandered out of her district is hoping Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning how states draw districts affecting minority voters will bring changes here.
The U.S. Supreme Court has now limited the scope of the Voting Rights Act, constraining the use of race as a factor when drawing congressional maps.
Justices ruled 6-3 that Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map, which was redrawn to create a second majority-Black district, constituted an “illegal” racial gerrymander.
Sen. Nikki Torres, R-15th Legislative District, has moved in order to run in Washington’s 8th District, following a 2024 decision to create a majority-Latino voting district in central Washington, which pushed her out of the district.
“It would have been nice if they would have issued this decision sooner, because many of us had to jump around, especially myself,” Torres said in a Thursday interview with The Center Square.
“I was redistricted out and this has all had a huge impact on my district,” she added.
“Now we’re going to wait and see what happens for us here in Washington state and see if they’re going to go back and follow with the Louisiana case.”
She noted that proponents of redistricting to give Hispanics voters more say in their representatives has backfired.
“We saw the Hispanic voting age, the HVA population they call it, actually reduced when they redrew the maps. It was originally like 50.1 or 50.2 [percent] and it went down to 49. When they redrew the maps, they actually diluted the Latino vote,” she said.
As reported by The Center Square, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik adopted the new Washington state legislative map after his ruling in August 2023 in Soto Palmer v. Hobbs, and maps drawn in 2021 by the Washington State Redistricting Commission for the Yakima Valley “cracked” – or diluted – the Latino vote.
The map joins Latino communities from East Yakima in Yakima County to Pasco in Franklin County. In addition, the district was switched from the 15th Legislative District to the 14th Legislative District, with the thinking being this will ensure state Senate elections for the district will fall during a presidential election year, when Latino voter turnout is generally higher.
The redraw left Torres without her seat.
“The majority party started this in 2021 when they knew the new maps were going to be drawn off the census and they fought it in court and they knew they were going to get their way, and they did,” said Torres.
“It should be drawn off the census. That’s the way it’s supposed to be and we’ll see what happens now.”
State Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah, is running for the Senate seat that Torres is vacating.
Republican Gabe Galbraith, who is the current Kennewick school board president, is running for the 8th District state Senate seat against Torres in the August primary. He’s been critical of her physically moving so she could stay in the Senate.
The current senator in the 8th District, Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, is running for the U.S. House seat now held by Rep. Dan Newhouse. Newhouse is not running for reelection.
