Davis hasn’t felt that sense of fairness in her redrawn district in Texas. The political priorities in her Black, teetering middle-class neighborhood focus largely on crime, jobs and economic development. But her new Republican congressman, Michael C. Burgess, acknowledges that the mostly White and rural constituents that make up his base are more concerned about immigration and roads. He backs President Bush’s 2007 proposed budget, which cuts spending on higher education and Medicare — issues that have received strong support in the Black community. Before the redesign, Burgess’ district was fairly compact. Now, it stretches 100 miles, from east Ft. Worth to the Oklahoma border. And as the district size has grown, the voting strength of Davis’ neighborhood has dwindled.
“We don’t have any interests in common,” she says of Burgess. “He doesn’t represent me. Rather than work to convert us, they just carved us out like we were nobodies.”
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