Tag: gerrymandering

Newsom says California to draw congressional maps to ‘END TRUMP PRESIDENCY’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will move forward with drawing new congressional maps that he said “WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY” and allow Democrats to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!),” Newsom wrote Tuesday night, in a post written in the style of President Donald Trump’s occasionally all-caps social media posts.

The announcement comes amid Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw congressional maps in their party’s favor. The redistricting showdown in Texas has led blue states to threaten to retaliate — with Newsom proposing to cut five GOP-held seats in California.

The redistricting battle in Texas — and potentially other states — has national implications, with control of the U.S. House potentially at stake. The Texas GOP’s proposed congressional map could net Republicans between three and five seats in next year’s midterm elections — seats that could make a difference as Republicans work to maintain their small majority in the U.S. House.

A spokesperson for California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas confirmed to ABC News that the state legislature is aiming to release draft maps on Friday.

Keep reading

Jasmine Crockett’s Racist Redistricting Comments Get Fact Checked by Greg Abbott

Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded Sunday to Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett’s claims that the state’s new redistricting maps would silence minority voters, pointing to recent Republican gains among Hispanic, Black, and Asian voters as evidence to the contrary.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday with host Shannon Bream, Abbott addressed remarks Crockett made a day earlier on MSNBC, where she argued the GOP proposal would strip minority communities of political influence.

Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state for Democratic strongholds such as New York and Illinois in an effort to block the Republican-backed redistricting plan, which analysts say could result in the GOP gaining as many as five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“First of all, it wouldn’t be a day that ends in the letter Y if Jasmine Crockett didn’t say something racist,” Abbott told Bream.

“But second, her ‘facts’ are wrong, because the facts in Texas are under the maps that we are drawing, four of the new seats will be predominantly Hispanic seats. The problem that Democrats have in the state of Texas is Hispanics, black voters and other voters, they have learned now that the ideas that Democrats stand for are contrary to the ideas that the Hispanic community and black community stand for. They all want secure borders, they don’t want men and women’s sports and they want support for law enforcement.”

Abbott said GOP outreach has increasingly resonated with minority voters in recent election cycles.

“What we are finding is these Hispanics are voting for Republicans,” Abbott said.

Keep reading

Report: Texas Democrat Fugitives Concede, Will Return to Austin

The Texas House Democrats who abandoned their state in protest of the Republican-led redistricting effort will return home after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) took “emergency action” to begin removing the absent legislators as they refused to show up for work.

Multiple sources revealed the news to ABC13 on Tuesday, though the exact date the Democrats will return to the state capitol in Austin was not confirmed. 

The state House had only 95 members present for the second day in a row on Tuesday, with Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) predicting that the session will end and a new one will start assuming there is no quorum on Friday, the outlet noted.

Keep reading

Rep. Jasmine Crockett Says Republicans Want to ‘Systemically’ Remove Black ‘Electeds’

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) claimed Monday that Republican-led redistricting efforts are aimed at reducing the number of Black members of Congress, asserting that these moves violate constitutional protections and the Voting Rights Act.

Speaking during an appearance on CNN’s The Lead, Crockett alleged that Republican lawmakers in multiple states are working to “systemically get rid” of Black elected officials as part of their strategy to secure political victories.

“When it comes to our base, they want to see a fight,” Crockett said.

“They don’t want to see us just lay down and say, OK, well, the Republicans want to do whatever they want to do. They want to minimize voices. They want to systemically get rid of those black electeds.”

Crockett pointed to several states she says are already engaged in these tactics.

“When I look at the numbers, and to be clear, Florida is already in this thing. We know that Texas is in this thing. We know that they’re putting pressure on Indiana as well as Missouri,” she said.

According to Crockett, these efforts are part of a broader Republican plan to win elections by altering congressional maps in ways that reduce minority representation.

Keep reading

Politico Hacks Insist Gerrymandering Is Different When Democrats Do It

On Sunday, Politico’s Gregory Svirnovskiy regurgitated talking points by Illinois Democrat governor J.B. Pritzker and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder to suggest Democrats’ gerrymandering is permissible, while smearing Republicans’ attempt to redistrict in Texas as a Trump-backed “attempt to cheat mid-decade.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called a special legislative session to, in part, consider new maps “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.” This came right after the DOJ expressed “serious concerns” that four Texas districts were unlawfully gerrymandered on racial grounds. Last week, close to 60 Texas House Democrats abandoned the state and headed to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts to protest a new redistricting proposal that could give Republicans five more congressional seats.

As The Federalist reported, Illinois is the most gerrymandered state in the country. In fact, as Nathaniel Rakich and Tony Chow wrote in 2022 in FiveThirtyEight, Illinois’ “gerrymandered congressional map seems hell-bent on making Republican congressmen from Illinois an endangered species.” Democrats — who were in charge of redistricting in the state — “drew a map that packed all five Republicans” in Illinois’ U.S. House delegation “into just three.” And despite Democrats not winning even 60 percent of the popular vote in 2024, the party holds 14 out of the state’s 17 congressional seats.

In New York, Democrats at the state level blocked a proposal drawn by the state’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Committee (IRC) last year and instead approved a map which, as NBC News’ Jane C. Timm wrote, gave “Democrats a slight boost.”Notably, New Yorkers passed a constitutional amendment in 2014 creating the IRC, which is tasked with drawing new maps every 10 years. Democrats had previously been shot down by the courts after they, as Timm described, passed maps “that so significantly boosted their congressional prospects” in 2022.

In Massachusetts, there are a total of zero Republican congressional districts despite the state swinging more than 36 percent for Trump in 2024.

Keep reading

California Moves Forward With Special Redistricting Election To Counter Texas’s Plan

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Friday that the state will move forward with a ballot measure in November to redraw its congressional map in response to a Republican-backed redistricting plan in Texas.

Speaking alongside state Democratic leaders, Newsom said they would call for a special election in the first week of November to vote on redrawing the congressional map, a move that could potentially add five more U.S. House seats to the Democratic tally.

“We are talking about emergency measures to respond to what’s happening in Texas, and we will nullify what happens in Texas,” the Democratic governor told reporters.

“We will pick up five seats with the consent of the people, and that’s the difference between the approach we’re taking and the approach they’re taking. We’re doing it [on a] temporary basis,” he added.

Newsom also reaffirmed that the state will remain committed to its independent redistricting process. The Democrats said they expected to have a newly agreed-upon map, based on previous plans reviewed by the state’s independent redistricting commission, ready for public scrutiny next week, three months before it would go to voters.

Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who attended the conference, backed Newsom’s decision and praised Texas Democratic lawmakers for their efforts to block the GOP’s redistricting plan.

“It’s not wrong in what we’re doing. This is self-defense for our democracy,” Pelosi said. “I thank again our Texans for their leadership, for their courage, and most of all, for their patriotism.”

Keep reading

Blue-State Governors Harbor Texas Fugitives To Help Democrats Get Control Of Congress

The exodus of more than 50 Democrat members of the Texas House to block a quorum in Austin is bad enough. Even worse is how the Democrat Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, has essentially promised them safe harbor, appearing with them at a press conference on Sunday while declaring, “we’re going to do everything we can to protect” them.

Control of the U.S. House for the second half of the Trump administration hangs in the balance, as the redistricting map to be voted on in Austin would give Republicans a good chance of winning five of the 13 Texas congressional seats they don’t currently hold. Illinois already gerrymandered its House maps to help Democrats win 14 out of its 17 seats, so it is hypocritical for them to claim unfairness in Texas.

Perhaps Illinois was chosen because its Democrat governor is reportedly helping the Texas Democrats “find lodging and meeting spaces.” During a recent press conference, Pritzker denied that he was writing them checks but said he was not against doing it.

Trump observed on Tuesday morning that “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas. And we are entitled to five more seats” in Congress from Texas. Ironically, Texas has an enormous congressional delegation of 38 seats. This is no doubt thanks in part to Democrats’ insistence on including illegal aliens in the census, used to allocate seats among the states. Multiple Democrat congressmen from Texas could lose their seats next year under the new redistricting plan.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a Sunday statement that the Democrat lawmakers’ “absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose.” He cited the state constitution, saying, “When the Governor calls a Special Session, our Constitution provides that the ‘Legislature shall meet.’”

He continued, stating, “Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts or agrees to accept’ … funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws.” Abbott added that any person who “offers, confers, or agrees to confer” money to “fleeing Democrat House members” could also be charged with a crime.

In 2021, Democrat House members likewise fled Austin to frustrate a quorum and block passage of new voting integrity measures, including voter ID. That blockade lasted through the first and into the second special session. When three Houston Democrats returned, a quorum was established, and the bill passed. A court struck down portions of the bill, but on Monday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that its mail ballot ID number requirement easily complies with federal law.

In the Texas House, a quorum requires the presence of two-thirds, or 100, of the 150 representatives. The legislative session on Monday fell 10 votes short of a quorum, according to the Texas Tribune.

Civil arrest warrants were then ordered under Texas law because of the dereliction of duty by Democrats, but these warrants are only enforceable in Texas. The state governors could approve an extradition request, but the Democrat lawmakers all fled to states with Democrat governors.

Democrat Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said, “We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul,” according to the Associated Press. Fellow Texas House Democrat Caucus Chair Gene Wu observed that he and his colleagues “will do whatever it takes.” Notably, Abbott filed an emergency petition with the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday to remove Wu from office. According to the Texas Tribune, the justices gave Wu until the end of the day on Friday to respond, and this “test case … could eventually allow [Abott] to remove every member who left the state.” Wu called the move “meaningless” in an interview with NPR.

Keep reading

Repeat Loser Beto O’Rourke Tells Texas Crowd Democrats Will Do Whatever it Takes to Regain Power: ‘F**k the Rules’ 

Beto O’Rourke spoke to a crowd in Texas this weekend and made it clear that Democrats will do whatever it takes to regain power, saying ‘f**k the rules.’

He claimed that Dems will redistrict blue states in response to what Texas is doing. Apparently, no one has told him that Democrats have nothing left to gerrymander because they have been doing this for years.

O’Rourke also said that when Democrats regain power, they will immediately grant amnesty to illegals. That’s rather telling, isn’t it?

CBS News covered the event:

Beto O’Rourke’s redistricting rally draws crowd in Fort Worth as Texas legal fight escalates

The fight over Texas redistricting is escalating – and Fort Worth became the latest flashpoint Saturday afternoon.

More than 200 people packed the Ridglea Theater for a rally led by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

The event focused on the legal and political fallout surrounding Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a Republican-backed redistricting plan. The Texas House failed to reach a quorum again on Friday, preventing lawmakers from voting on the new congressional maps, as GOP officials float ousting the absent Democrats from office or seeking civil arrests.

O’Rourke addressed the crowd and responded to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. A state judge on Friday barred O’Rourke and his political action committee from financially supporting the Democratic legislators who left Texas.

“He thinks we’re going to take it right here,” O’Rourke said. “But he doesn’t understand – in Texas, our knees do not bend.”

Keep reading

Texas Democrats Are Raging Over GOP Gerrymandering—But They Did It First

Democrats in Texas are currently accusing Republicans of using redistricting to gain a partisan advantage. This accusation, however, is both disingenuous and historically inaccurate.

When Democrats controlled the state in the 1990s, they engaged in the same tactics—so aggressively that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled their districts racially gerrymandered and unconstitutional.

In 1990, Democrat Ann Richards was elected governor of Texas, and the Democratic Party controlled the state legislature. This control allowed them to redraw congressional districts to maintain their political dominance. 

State Senator Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat, chaired the redistricting subcommittee and took charge of drafting the new maps. Her explicit goal was to create new minority-majority districts to favor the Democratic Party.

Johnson’s plan resulted in a majority-Hispanic district in Houston and a majority-Black district in Dallas—both aimed at consolidating long-term Democratic control. 

This political maneuvering did not go unnoticed. The newly drawn districts, which included those represented by Democrats Martin Frost and John Wiley Bryant, became more homogeneous and less politically diverse.

Despite protests, the Texas Legislature passed Johnson’s plan in 1991. Critics, primarily Republicans, argued that the maps used flawed census data, potentially undercounting minority populations.

Yet, the U.S. Department of Justice granted preclearance under the Voting Rights Act, and the new districts were used in the 1992 elections.

In 1994, Republicans filed a lawsuit, claiming that several new districts—particularly Districts 18, 29, and 30—were racially gerrymandered in violation of the Constitution. 

Keep reading

TX Judge Slaps Beto O’Rourke With Fundraising Ban Over Fleeing Democrats

A Texas judge has issued a temporary restraining order against former congressman Beto O’Rourke and his nonprofit organization, Powered by People, following allegations from state Attorney General Ken Paxton that they engaged in illegal fundraising to aid Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an effort to block Republican redistricting legislation.

Tarrant County District Judge Megan Fahey, a Republican appointed in 2019 by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, issued the ruling Friday evening.

The order prohibits O’Rourke and his group from raising funds or providing financial support to the Democrats who left Texas to avoid a legislative vote on GOP-backed redistricting maps.

In her decision, Fahey wrote that “Defendants have and will continue to engage in unlawful fundraising practices and utilization of political funds in a manner that either directly violates or causes Texas Democratic Legislators to violate [the law].

Consumers have and continue to suffer irreparable harm through these unlawful acts because they are making political contributions that are being used to fund personal expenses and violate state law.”

Keep reading