Texas Democrats Return to Austin Amid Redistricting War
As Ben Smith wrote on Sunday, the Democrats will likely not enjoy the results of a nationwide redistricting war.
Welp, the Texas Democrats returned to Austin, which means a quorum will be called and the redistricting will happen.
If they had any guts, they would have stayed away forever, because why even bother if it’s just going to happen?
Ah, the Texas Democrats revealed their plan:
“The Texas House Democrats successfully killed the first special session and blocked Republicans from voting on their racist map, which was designed to allow Donald Trump to continue harming American citizens and the working class.
“During that time, they took the fight nationally and have successfully lobbied Democratic Governors across the nation to fight Trump’s fire with fire. Now that the nation is involved in this fight, some Texas Democrats are coming back to fight these racist maps in the legislature and then in the courts. GOP leadership in Texas has a long history of violating the Voting Rights Act, and we know these maps will be no different.
This statement made me laugh:
“Latino Texans didn’t send us to Austin to watch while Republicans punish our voters through racial gerrymandering that erases Latino voices we’ve already fought hard to secure at the table,” said Mexican American Legislative Caucus Chair Rep. Ramón Romero Jr. “Governor Abbott is pushing this map to attack Latino voters simply because we won’t fall in line with Trump’s extreme agenda. Latinos make up half of Texas’s growth, yet instead of creating new opportunities, this map steals them away. When we return, we will be ready to fight this map with every weapon available — from the streets to the statehouse to the courthouse.”
Romero doesn’t care that President Donald Trump won 55% of the Latino vote in Texas in 2024.
A poll from this year showed support has declined, though not by much.
As Ben Smith wrote on Sunday, the Democrats will likely not enjoy the results of a nationwide redistricting war.
Sure, the Texas Democrats ignited Democratic governors, especially California Gov. Gavin Newsom, but the Republican governors also took notice.
From Ben’s article:
Meanwhile, red states are moving fast. Missouri is on top of that movement.
A document obtained by The Associated Press shows the state Senate has received a $46,000 invoice for software licenses and staff training for redistricting.
While Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe hasn’t officially announced a special session, Republican House Majority Leader Alex Riley told the AP it is “pretty likely” to happen. Riley added that he has had discussions with White House staff about it.
Ohio, Florida, and Kansas are weighing similar moves, and they actually have the power to deliver immediate GOP gains. Democrats in New York and Wisconsin, by contrast, are stuck in courts and constitutional amendments that will take years.
In a re-redistricting war, Republicans would win pic.twitter.com/PG9vuh3Lzv
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) August 16, 2025
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Comments
War footing. NOW.
Which is worse, 300 people pissed over a questionable election or a handful of politicians whom suddenly become fleebaggers and dodge their elected duties?
That needs to cease and desist.
Should pass a law that says if you flee the State to stop a vote taking place you are forfeiting your seat, which will be filled by the Gov’na until the next election.
Might focus Democrats on doing their job eh? 😂
That idea came up a while back. Maybe it’s time to put it in writing and vote on it.
Make sure to withhold their fines from their paychecks.
They returned because the court cut off their money supply. Their constituents deserve them to be there to represent them. Since they decided political grandstanding and fleeing the state to hold Texans hostage was more important than representing the people who voted them into office, Paxton should continue the effort to throw them out of office and give the people the chance to vote for politicians who will show up and do the job they were elected for
1. That court decision was bogus and a disgrace, and the judge deserves to be sanctioned, which will unfortunately not happen.
2. That shouldn’t have forced their return, because they could just be funded from out of state. No Texas judge could prevent the DNC from paying their expenses, or ActBlue, or any other entity not subject to Texas law. Nor could any Texas judge prevent donors, even in Texas, from donating to such an entity for that purpose. There are plenty of Democrat donors who would have been willing to fund them indefinitely,
3. There can’t be any effort to throw them out. Even if we accept the dubious theory that their absence can be taken as evidence that they’ve abandoned their seats, a theory that has no basis in the TX constitution but is simply something the TX courts have invented — even if we accept that theory, their return clearly proves that they didn’t abandon their seats after all, so no court has the power to declare them vacant.
No doubt you are right, but as is often the case, being right won’t do them much good. No one (including Republican leadership) ever expected them to actually be removed from their seats… it’s simply tit for tat show business…just as the Democrats knew perfectly well that they would eventually have to show up.
The Democrats also understand that they will lose on the issue but it is finally something about which they can appear in the press that isn’t the losing side of an 80/20 issue.
Basically it’s just politicians on both sides having a good time with something ultimately unimportant.
It’s not unimportant. You see how hampered Republicans are by having such a small majority. Another five or ten seats will make a huge difference. That’s important.
They know they can’t stop it, but by engaging in this theater they brought public attention to the subject and energized their base to come out and vote next year, to “defeat the gerrymander”. They also hope to energize fundraising for the same reason.
The bottom line is that the redistricting will happen, and that’s a good thing.
I see your reasoning. But running away from a quorum cannot be acceptable. You are elected to represent. Represent. The Texas Constitution gives the Legislature the power to redistrict.
If you die, you get replaced. If you obstruct, you should get replaced as well.
Breaking a quorum is a valid political tactic. As the Texas members pointed out, no less a figure than Abraham Lincoln engaged in it. They were representing their voters by running away; that is what their voters wanted them to do. Now they’ve seen that they can’t stay away forever, and Abbott was prepared to outwait them, so they caved. Good.
There is nothing in the Texas constitution to allow replacing a legislator just because they “obstruct”. It allows the House to set penalties, but not expulsion. And it doesn’t say anything about courts having such a power either. Which doesn’t mean they don’t have it, just that they don’t obviously have it.
1 Nope. Perfectly reasonable ruling and a correct one
2 Yes it should have and it doesn’t matter where a bribe comes from.
3 There most certainly can be an effort to throw them out and it is still ongoing.
You are wrong on all counts, as usual.
1. The ruling was blatantly false and dishonest. Paying the personal expenses of politicians serving their party’s electoral interest is inherently a valid political expense. To deny that is simply to lie. And to claim that donors are being defrauded when the donations are explicitly solicited for this purpose is beyond a lie, it is itself fraudulent. For a judge to make such a finding is judicial misconduct, and a perversion of the law for political gain.
2. There was no bribery involved. Calling it bribery is once again a brazen filthy lie, and a perversion of the law for political gain.
3. No, there cannot be any such effort, because they have NOT abandoned their seats. They’re there, in the legislature, carrying out their duties, so how can you claim they’ve abandoned them? That again is a blatant, filthy lie.
The entire idea that a court can find a seat to have been abandoned and declare it vacant is a novelty. It’s something TX courts seems to have made up on their own. Very well, maybe they’re right. But even according to Paxton there are no fixed criteria for this; in each individual case it would require an intensely fact-based inquiry to determine whether the seat has in fact been effectively abandoned. That fact pattern simply cannot be found when the member is actively filling the seat and not abandoning it.
This is what every liberal votes for and supports. How embarrassing.
so they knew by coming back the same issues would still need attending to,,,,,so it appears that once again,,,, lefty was just wasting time with their
running away from home , tantrum
Huh, seems to me that we should go forward with this redistricting War. The Lefty’s want it, so let’s let them have it.
We can’t just go all out immediately, or there’ll be nothing left to threaten them with. The message to Dems should be, be glad we’re only taking five seats from you; next time it’ll be ten, and the time after that we’ll figure out a way to take all your seats. If you don’t want that to happen, behave.
Fact is that the Democrats elected the House Speaker and nothing will happen, the new map won’t be any better.
CA D’s have multiple problems with CA Constitutional Amendments and State Laws.
For starters, it is required that their redistricting be done by a “non-partisan” group, rather than the legislature. Current plan is for the legislature to do it. (US Constitution clearly gives the legislature sole authority, and delegating this *should* be found to be Unconstitutional – but no one’s making that argument.
The law also specifies they redistrict only once after each census. Other States, like TX, have not restricted themselves in this way.
And, most fun of all, they have a State Constitutional Amendment that requires redistricting NOT be done for partisan gain, and literally every D that matters in CA is on record stating that the goal here is to flip at least 5 R seats to D.
So, CA R’s, if they have a spine (we’ll see about that), can tie up the D’s plans in courts for quite some time. Quite possibly ending them entirely.
Bonus: If Trump actually manages to get a new Census taken that excludes illegal aliens (and, really, it ought to exclude all foreign nationals including those legally present), then CA is very likely to lose a few seats. 3-5 from what I’ve seen, but who knows? In which case they’ll have to start over again in a couple years anyway – but with fewer available pickups. There’s typically a minimum number of Districts you have to give the other side when you “stack” their supporters into a few districts so that you can win the rest. Lower the total number of Districts in the State, and you still have that minimum number of stacked opposition Districts, and you end up with fewer flips.
No, they can’t. You don’t seem to understand that Newsome’s proposal is a constitutional amendment. It probably won’t pass, but if it does there will be no way to challenge it in court. How could there be?
He can’t. It’s impossible, because the constitution explicitly forbids it, and unlike Newsome he has no way to amend the constitution. Amendments can only be proposed by a 2/3 vote in each house of Congress, or by a majority in each house calling a convention. The 2/3 is impossible, and the convention would be filibustered in the senate.
You don’t seem to understand that it’s not the State Constitution but a state law that Newsome wants to override. He is calling it ” Election Rigging Response Act,” and it is a temporary measure, supposedly.
You are misinformed. It is a proposed constitutional amendment. That’s why it needs to be approved at a referendum.
And yes, it is a temporary measure; it is proposed to apply only until the 2030 census, and only if the Texas redistricting goes ahead.
It probably won’t pass, but Newsome has every right to try. And if he succeeds, Texas should retaliate in kind by doing another redistricting of its own, and taking another five seats, or even more.
…and face ZERO consequences for their actions.
Arrest them all anyways. Imprison them all anyways. The process is the punishment.
District court says, ‘No, no?’ Prosecute them again. Appeals court says, ‘No, no.’
Bring the pain. Make it HURT.
The process is the punishment.
Prosecute them again on
You can’t do that. At all. Try it and you will be arrested.