According to recent reporting, President Donald Trump asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to find him more seats in the House of Representatives, and Abbott obliged.
Texas is making a rare move of redrawing district maps mid-decade, which, if successful, would likely turn five blue seats red in the midterm election cycle.
Democrats in the Texas state House left town to block the quorum needed to approve the plan, and now Abbott is hoping to have them all arrested.
I have made it very clear in the past that I do not like gerrymandering, but I have also stated that every state does it when the opportunity presents itself.
If you look at the district lines in Illinois, they are the result of blatant gerrymandering, to the point that late-night TV host Stephen Colbert even questioned Gov. J.B. Pritzker about them.
Pritzker cracked a joke and justified his maps by saying they did theirs right after the last census, as if that excuses district lines that blatantly favor Democrats and nullify conservative votes (Pritzker is making Texas the bad guy by saying the new lines will dismiss voters who are black and brown, but apparently it is okay to dismiss voters who are white or conservative).
When Abbott revealed the proposed new maps, Democrats were fuming, so they decided to leave town rather than allow a vote to take place, which they knew they would lose.
In order for the Texas House to achieve a quorum, at least 100 of the 150 members need to be present, so roughly five dozen Democrats skipped town.
According to reports, they went to Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York to make their case to the media that Abbott is trying to rig future elections.
Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, explained, "This is often a very effective strategy to delay legislation and shine a spotlight on that legislation.”
He continued, "But it's not an effective strategy to actually block the legislation, because Gov. Abbott can keep calling the Texas legislature back in special session for month after month after month, and that would require these legislators to remain out of state."
When the Dems left, both Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that they were going to try to have the Dems arrested on possible felony charges. Abbott, however, just upped the ante by filing a lawsuit to have these Democrats outright removed from office.
Abbott posted to X, “Today I took emergency action to begin the removal from office of derelict Democrat Texas House members who refuse to show up for the special session.”
His post continued, explaining that he filed his request with the Texas Supreme Court to quickly “make clear the authority I have to bring the lawsuit (for removal of legislators from their offices).”
This is nothing more than a publicity stunt for Democrats, and I would love to see Abbott successful in charging them for running from this fight. Again, I don’t support gerrymandering, but until we fix the system, this is how the game is played. You can’t run away when you don’t get your way, and that is what Democrats are doing right now.
