What’s happening in Texas and the redistricting fight is meaningful; I believe this is a moment. It is a fight for the House of Representives coming up in the next midterm election. The Republicans are not playing by the rules; Democrats intend to meet them head-to-head in this battle.
Yesterday, Texas Democratic legislators left Texas in order to stop the state Republicans from passing legislation that would redraw the voter registration map of Texas to add five GOP seats to the Texas house. Without a quorum, the legislation could not vote on this. Texas state representative James Talarico said in a video posted to social media,
“My Democratic colleagues and I have just left our beloved state to break quorum and stop Trump’s redistricting power grab. 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 said, “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. Everyone is already tired of the hyperpartisan bickering and all the fighting because we never get anything done. And they are creating a system that will reinforce that and make it even worse. And we’re telling people, please come out, stand up against it, rise up and say no more. Enough.”
Wu said the Texas Democratic representatives “did not make the decision to come here today…lightly, but we come here today with absolute moral clarity.”
The Democratic legislators bravely left their home state on principle, and traveled to Illionois, New York and California where they were welcomed with open arms by the govenors of each state. Illinoir govenor Pritzker said,
“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.”
Governor Kathy Hochul of New York hosted some of the Democratic lawymakers at a luncheon in Albany, and called them “profiles in courage.”
Texas Govenor Abbott immideately shot back when the Democrats left, saying he has the power to replace them, that they forfeited their seats.
What happens next is unclear. Blue states are working to ammend their state’s constitutions so that they can redraw their electoral maps just as Texas is trying to. What Abbott will do, where the Democratic legislators will go, will Abbott try to arrest them: this is all still unknown.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: Texas Democrats’ Moral Clarity – by Liza Donnelly
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