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Topic: Voting rights and community power in Harris CountySource: Texas Organizing Project (TOP)Years Active: 15+ yearsVoters Reached: 1.5 million Texas voters from 2022 to 2024Reading Time: Under 1 minute
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Good first step: Act Texas Organizing Project
Visit texasorganizingproject.org to find out how to get involved, register to vote, or join a campaign in your neighborhood.
The Texas Organizing Project (TOP) is a community power-building organization that has worked for more than 15 years with Black and Latino Texans in Harris County. TOP runs voter engagement drives, fights discriminatory voting maps, and pushes for policies that help working families. If you want to get involved in shaping the future of your neighborhood and your city, TOP is a place to start.
TOP focuses on three big areas. First, voter engagement: the organization has reached 1.5 million Texas voters through its BlackTOP electoral programs between 2022 and 2024. Second, voting rights: TOP fights back when politicians draw district maps designed to weaken Black and Latino political representation. Third, local wins: TOP members have helped secure real results for Houston neighborhoods, including $100 million in housing repair funds in the city's disaster recovery plan after Hurricane Beryl and the 2024 Derecho, and support for the expansion of Ben Taub Hospital in Harris County.
You can use what you learned here to take action in your own community. Knowing that organized neighbors have already won funding for housing repairs and hospital expansions shows that civic engagement produces real results. You do not need to be a political expert. TOP's model is built on door-to-door relationship building — one conversation at a time. Start by learning more about TOP's current campaigns and showing up.
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Harris County and citywide Houston
TOP's work connects directly to other issues Houston residents care about. The Ben Taub Hospital expansion affects anyone who relies on Harris County's public health system. The $100 million in disaster recovery housing funds matters to neighborhoods still recovering from Hurricane Beryl. Voting map battles affect who represents you at every level of government. Organizations mentioned alongside TOP in the housing recovery effort include West Street Recovery, Texas Housers, Texas Appleseed, Northeast Action Collective, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Coalition for the Environment, Equity and Resilience.
Harris County is one of the most diverse counties in the country, yet Black and Latino communities have often been left out of political decisions that shape their lives — from hospital access to housing recovery funds to how voting district lines are drawn. TOP works to change that by building lasting relationships and organized power, election cycle after election cycle.
