Trump Take House of Representatives
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Donald Trump ordered Governor Greg Abbott of Texas to redistrict the state to add four or five new Republican seats in the House of Representatives. Redistricting is supposed to take place only every decade, after the census. In a session ostensibly for the purpose of dealing with the effects of July’s floods, Republicans in the Texas House came up with the required plan. Texas House Democrats left the state to remove a quorum, making a vote on the plan impossible. Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, along with others, provided a place for those Democrats to land. They held a press conference last night.
Heather Cox Richardson has a good summary.
“My Democratic colleagues and I have just left our beloved state to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab,” Texas state representative James Talarico said in a video posted to social media. “Trump told our Republican colleagues to redraw the political maps here in Texas in the middle of the decade to get him five more seats and protect his majority in Congress. They’re turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 elections. If this power grab succeeds, they will hang on to power without any accountability from the voters. But Texas Democrats are fighting back. We’re leaving the state, breaking quorum and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election. We are not fighting for the Democratic Party. We are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher. We have to take a stand.”
[Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene] Wu warned that the attempt to grab five new seats in Texas to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives against the will of voters is a threat not only to Texas, but to the entire country and to the concept of America. “If Donald Trump is allowed to do this, if he is allowed to once again cheat and get away with it, there’s no stopping this. This will spread across the country, and…will occur everywhere. Because if one person’s going to cheat and no one’s going to stop it, why doesn’t everyone just do it then? And that is not a society, that is not an America that works.”
Pritzker:
“To be in public office right now is to constantly ask yourself, how do I make sure that we’re standing on the right side of history? There’s a simple answer. The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. The right side of history will always expect you to be courageous. Expect courage from people around you, and it will show up. Expect fear, and fear will rule the day. Let the courage of these leaders be an example to the rest of the country. I’m proud to stand side by side with our friends from Texas today.”
It’s not simply the gerrymandering, although that is part of the plan. It’s about stealing the nation’s Congress to do Trump’s bidding. It’s also an indication that Trump thinks he’ll lose the House next year.