Doggett calls it quits after Supreme Court sanctions new Texas map
Story by Daniela Altimari • 22hTexas Rep. Lloyd Doggett is retiring after all, bringing an end to a nearly 50-year political career.
“I will continue working with the same urgency and determination as if next year were my last, which in public office it will be,” the longtime Democratic lawmaker said in a statement Friday.
Doggett had first announced he’d forgo running for a 17th term in August if courts upheld the new House map that Texas Republicans drew at the urging of President Donald Trump. The new map targeted five Democrat-held seats, making them more favorable for the GOP.
Two Austin-area districts were merged into a single seat, which would have teed up a primary between Doggett, 79, whose current seat covers around two-thirds of the city, and Greg Casar, a younger Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus and whose current district encompasses Austin’s east side and portions of San Antonio.
But last month, after a panel of federal judges in Texas blocked the new map on the grounds that it constituted a racial gerrymander, Doggett, the senior-most member of the Texas delegation, reconsidered. “To borrow from Mark Twain, the reports of my death, politically, are greatly exaggerated,” he said in a video posted on social media.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/doggett-calls-it-quits-after-supreme-court-sanctions-new-texas-map/ar-AA1ROh1K?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=f0f3a49d1c764fc6ef0cff9aee64211b&ei=16
