Demographics help shape Harlingen’s new district map; More than 3,000 residents can’t vote in May election

The city’s demographics are shaping Harlingen’s five voting districts. Across the new map, factors such as income helped the City Commission’s new majority carve out the single-member districts’ boundaries. While members of the commission’s majority believe the new lines more fairly define the districts’ make up, redistricting has moved more than 3,000 District 2 residents into District 3, costing them their vote for their representatives in the May election. Last week, commissioners voted 3-2 to redraw the city’s single-member district map, shifting population blocs based on demographics as part of a plan aimed at making districts more uniform in their make up, Commissioner Rene Perez said. While Perez and Commissioners Richard Uribe and Frank Puente voted to adopt the map, Commissioners Michael Mezmar and Frank Morales opposed the move.

“This plan is fair,” Perez, the map’s architect, said. “The goal is to truly represent the demographics of Harlingen to have true representation.” In his home on East Woodland Drive, Jay Meade raised the question, “When you’re redistricting, are you supposed to look at population or demographics?” While redrawing the map, commissioners moved part of Meade’s upscale neighborhood from District 2 into District 3, including Treasure Hills, which won’t elect a new commissioner until 2024. “I was sort of blindsided when they took my right to vote for a few years,” Meade, an advertising agency owner who served three terms on the City Commission, said. At Sunshine Country Club Estates, DawnRae Leonard believes the city’s voting maps should be drawn based on districts’ population numbers. When commissioners redrew the city’s voting map, they moved her neighborhood from District 1 to District 2, killing her year-long campaign aimed at toppling Uribe, District 1’s representative. “I worked very hard on this,” the Navy veteran said. “I wanted to take a deep dive into the city of Harlingen. That’s what I’ve been spending my year doing. I feel like they really took away a great opportunity from me. I felt I should be allowed to run my race.”