Gene Wu, a Democratic State lawmaker. BBC/Getty.
Democrat lawmakers in Texas have left the state in an effort to block redistricting. BBC. 2/3rds of the Texas state legislature must be present to hold votes, so 51 Democrats have fled to Illinois to prevent a special legislative session that would vote on redistricting. The session is also for emergency relief for Texas flooding victims and to ban THC. The lawmakers will face a $500 fine per day they are gone and could be arrested as well. Republicans plan to gerrymander Texas to remove five districts currently held by Democrats. Those five seats would help Republicans hold onto the house in 2026, and could allow them to expand the field. Democrats in Texas have pulled this stunt before, but both previous efforts failed.
My Comment:
I can't pretend to be objective in this case. I have zero sympathy for the Democrats in Texas and I would love to see some of the worst of the worst of their party gerrymandered out of the House. Two of the absolute worst representatives in Congress, Al Green and Jasmine Crocket, are in districts likely to be adjusted. Getting them out of office would be worth any cost we would have to pay.
And the Democrats are absurdly hypocritical to protest against gerrymandering. Why? Well, for one, they are going to one of the most gerrymandered states in the Union, Illinois. Thousands of Republicans in the state have zero voice in national politics because the Democrats made some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country, far worse than the proposed maps in Texas. And in response to Texas and Ohio changing their maps they are threatening to do so in California as well. It won't make up for what happens in Texas, and it's likely to fail, but they are absolutely hypocrites about this.
That doesn't mean that I like gerrymandering. I think it's an incredibly stupid system for this very reason. It's silly that a state can try to make as few congressional districts for parties they don't like and it's not very democratic. But it's the system we live under and pulling a stunt like this is essentially a temper tantrum. Elections have consequences and Democrats lost in Texas. This is what happens when you lose elections.
Of course, the optics of this are terrible as the Texas special session is also supposed to vote on aid for Texas flood victims. Not being there to help those folks is a pretty large middle finger for folks that have already faced so much misery. It's a horrible look for Democrats.
And I don't think they will get much support from the folks of Texas. Like I said, this feels like a temper tantrum and folks are not going to be happy that these representatives aren't doing their jobs. Maybe if they made it about the THC ban, which folks might actually be happy about, it would look better, but doing so for gerrymandering? It's absurd.
What is strange is why state legislatures allow this? Why not make it that if you flee the state to avoid a vote, you vacate your seat, or the vote goes on regardless? It's not even a partisan issue, if the parties were reversed, I'd still wonder why any state would allow this kind of thing? Just change the laws so this can't happen again.
Is this going to work? Probably not. It didn't work the last two times the Democrats did so in Texas. Eventually they will come back, probably after the two week session is over, and when they do come back, Governor Abbot will just call another session and this time I doubt the Democrats would be allowed to leave. This is just a stunt and one that isn't going to work.
Either way, I am pretty bullish on the Republicans keeping the house in 2026. And it's not just because Texas and Ohio are redistricting. Approval for Democrats in congress has been as low as 19% (not that Republicans are that much more popular) and the party is demoralized and without much of a platform other than "we hate men, white people and Donald Trump". But critically, the Supreme Court is poised to overturned the part of the Voting Rights Act that allows states to draw districts for the benefit of black voters. Given that the law is likely to be found unconstitutional due to it not being color blind, it's likely a lot of districts that favor Democrats will be redrawn.
About the only thing I can say for this effort is that it is at least giving the appearance of doing something, which is something the Democrats want right now. Part of the reason the Democrats in congress are so unpopular is that Democrats see them as doing nothing. Though this effort to prevent redistricting is a joke and doomed to fail, it can be said that at least they are doing something. Will it help the Democrats morale? Probably not. Like I said, it's going to fail. And failure is the whole problem with the Democrats right now in the first place.
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