Democrats vowed on Tuesday to do whatever they can to stop the President Donald Trump-led effort to remake Texas’ congressional map, saying it was both corrupt and a distraction from the response to recent deadly flooding.
“There is an ongoing search and rescue operation, and lives have been turned upside down as it relates to the historic and devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “But instead of addressing this serious crisis that has affected tens of thousands of lives in unthinkable ways, Donald Trump, House Republicans here in Washington and Governor [Greg] Abbott are conspiring to rig the Texas congressional map as part of an effort to disenfranchise millions of people.”
Trump has pushed for redistricting in Texas despite concerns from some Republicans that creating more Republican districts could make bright red districts more moderate, endangering incumbents. The president reportedly told GOP members on Tuesday that the party will seek to gain five additional Republican seats. The Texas state legislature will start a special session on July 21 that will address redistricting as well as devastation caused by the flooding.
Democratic leadership and the current 12 Texas Democrats said they would fight the planned redistricting however necessary. But they said that if the map goes through, they’ll take down Republicans who become vulnerable.
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“It’s painfully clear why Republicans are doing this. They know they are going to lose the majority next year,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene. “Any new map that Texas Republicans draw will almost certainly increase the number of competitive districts, thereby endangering more Republican incumbents.”
“Make no mistake, the DCCC will recruit aggressively to unseat any and all newly vulnerable Texas Republicans that go along with this corrupt ploy,” she continued.
Democrats argue that redistricting will break up minority communities and disenfranchise Democratic voters, of which there are still millions in the majority-Republican state.
“What this legislature historically has done is what they plan to do again,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett said of the Texas statehouse. “Dilute the voices of people of color in order to make sure that they can get to where they’re trying to go.”
But there are few avenues available for Democrats to challenge redistricting outside of lawsuits that could take years to resolve and may not finalize before the midterms.
The current congressional maps have also been litigated in court over concerns that they gerrymander out the influence of minority communities. Abbott acknowledged the Department of Justice’s concerns about the map when he announced plans to consider redistricting, which critics say was only a justification for redrawing the maps in even more discriminatory ways.
“Texas is a cautionary tale of what’s to come when an out-of-control president and an administration demand loyalty to them rather than the people and places that Republicans are elected to represent and whom they have sworn to represent,” said Rep. Lizzie Fletcher. “So together, with support from the House Democratic leadership, we will fight this redistricting effort in every way we can.”
Some Democratic-held states like California have floated a fight fire-with-fire approach. Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested he may push redistricting in California in response to any red states that subvert typical redistricting to favor Trump, writing “Two can play this game” on X regarding news that Trump will seek to gain seats in Texas.
House Democratic leadership declined on Tuesday to comment on the possibility of retaliatory redistricting from blue states.
“All options will continue to be on the table as it relates to our efforts to push back legislatively and legally in Texas, as it relates to this illegal, unconstitutional and egregious effort to break the elections and gerrymander,” Jeffries said. “With respect to what happens in other states, I think that I’ll let Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor [Kathy] Hochul and others continue to speak for themselves on this issue.”
It’s unclear how the broader Texas Republican caucus feels about the push for five new seats, which is an ambitious plan that will likely have significant impacts on many of the existing GOP seats, but Sen. John Cornyn, who faces a tough reelection bid, posted in support on Tuesday.
“Hispanic voters in Texas have rapidly shifted in favor of the GOP, in large part thanks @realdonaldtrump, so a mid decade redistricting will mean significant gains for Texas Republicans,” he wrote.
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