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The high-stakes battle between Republicans and Democrats over congressional redistricting forward of subsequent yr’s midterm elections resumes on Monday in California and Texas, the nation’s two most populous states.
In Austin, Texas, state lawmakers collect for a second straight particular session referred to as by conservative Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
On the high of their to-do listing is passing a GOP-crafted redistricting map that will create as much as 5 Republican-leaning congressional districts on the expense of at present Democrat-controlled seats.
The Republican push in Texas, which comes at President Donald Trump’s urging, is a part of a broader effort by the GOP throughout the nation to pad their razor-thin Home majority to maintain management of the chamber within the 2026 midterms, when the social gathering in energy historically faces political headwinds and loses seats.
TEXAS HOUSE SPEAKER VOWS RUNAWAY DEMS WILL BE ARRESTED IF THEY TRY TO SNEAK HOME OVER WEEKEND
Texas Home Speaker Dustin Borrow gavels Sine Die, ending the particular session after failing to succeed in a quorum on Aug. 15, 2025, in Austin. (AP Picture/Rodolfo Gonzalez)
Trump and his political workforce are aiming to forestall what occurred throughout his first time period within the White Home, when Democrats stormed again to seize the Home majority within the 2018 midterm elections.
Republicans in crimson state Texas get pleasure from a supermajority within the legislature and the state Senate handed the brand new congressional maps.
However Democratic state representatives fled Texas to disclaim a quorum within the chamber, stopping any votes on congressional redistricting.
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The fleeing Democrats, who arrange camp within the blue states of Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, late final week signaled that they might return to Texas after the adjournment of the primary particular session, and after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and different high California Democrats unveiled their playbook to counter the push by Trump and Republicans to enact uncommon – however not extraordinary – mid-decade congressional redistricting.
The tip of the walkout by the Democrats will result in the passage of the brand new maps, however Texas Democrats vow they’re going to combat the brand new state maps in court docket and say the strikes by California are permitting them to move “the baton.”
Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the highest Democrat within the Texas Home of Representatives, and different state lawmakers who fled Texas are anticipated to return this week to the Lone Star State. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman through Getty Pictures)
“Now, as Democrats throughout the nation be a part of our combat to trigger these maps to fail their political goal, we’re ready to deliver this battle again to Texas beneath the best circumstances and to take this combat to the courts,” Texas state Home Democratic chief Rep. Gene Wu stated on Thursday.
Abbott, who’s operating subsequent yr for a fourth four-year time period steering Texas, pledged to “proceed to name particular session after particular session till we get this Texas first agenda handed.”
And the governor, in a press release on Friday, charged that “delinquent Home Democrats ran away from their duty to move essential laws to profit the lives of Texans.”
Texas Home Speaker Dustin Burrows on Friday vowed that runaway Democrats who tried to return house over the weekend wouldn’t have a “peaceable weekend” and as a substitute can be arrested and “compelled to this chamber.”
SCHWARZENEGGER’S NEW ROLE: ‘TERMINATING GERRYMANDERING’
Burrows additionally stated at the beginning of the second particular session on Friday that he anticipated to succeed in a quorum on Monday, with the probably return of the fleeing Democrats.
Abbott and state Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton have been pushing to take away from workplace among the Democratic state lawmakers who fled, and all of the lawmakers who walked out and left the state face fines of as much as $500 per day for his or her absence.
Whereas the Republican push in Texas to upend the present congressional maps would not face constitutional constraints, Newsom’s path in California is way more sophisticated.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California speaks throughout a congressional redistricting occasion on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Picture/Wealthy Pedroncelli )
The governor is transferring to carry a particular election this yr, to acquire voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the non-partisan redistricting fee. A two-thirds majority vote within the Democrat-dominated California legislature can be wanted to carry the referendum.
The legislature is again in session in Sacramento on Monday, and Democrats in each chambers are anticipated to approve the maps – which might create as much as 5 extra left-leaning congressional districts on the expense of the Republican minority – by the tip of this week.
Democratic Celebration leaders are assured they’re going to have the votes to push the constitutional modification and the brand new proposed congressional maps by the legislature. The proposal was submitted to the state legislature by the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee (DCCC), which is the re-election arm of Home Democrats.
“Right here we’re in open and plain sight earlier than one vote is solid within the 2026 midterm election and right here [Trump] is as soon as once more making an attempt to rig the system,” Newsom charged on Thursday.
Final week’s look by Newsom, who is taken into account a probable contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, additionally served as a fundraising kickoff to lift huge quantities of marketing campaign money wanted to promote the redistricting push statewide in California.
The non-partisan redistricting fee, created over 15 years in the past, stays common with most Californians, based on public opinion polling.
That is why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising to not scrap the fee completely, however quite change it briefly by the legislature for the following three election cycles.
However Republican former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who represented a congressional district in California’s Central Valley for 17 years, argued in an look on Fox Information’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that “when you consider how they drew these traces, there wasn’t one listening to. There isn’t a debate. There isn’t any enter. Even the legislature in California would not have enter. The DCCC is simply ending it. That’s the reason we have to cease Newsom’s energy seize.
McCarthy, who helps to steer the GOP fundraising effort to counter Newsom and California Democrats main as much as the probably referendum this autumn, stated that “November 4th would be the election that folks might even have a say,” as he pointed to polls displaying robust help for the present non-partisan redistricting fee.
The push to briefly change the fee can also be being opposed by different high-profile Republicans. Among the many most seen is former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the final Republican elected governor in Democrat-dominated California.
The longtime Hollywood motion star, the final Republican governor in Democrat-dominated California, says he is mobilizing to oppose the push by Newsom to briefly scrap the state’s nonpartisan redistricting fee.
“I’m preparing for the gerrymandering battle,” Schwarzenegger wrote in a social media publish Friday, which included a photograph of the previous skilled bodybuilding champion lifting weights.
Schwarzenegger, who rose to worldwide fame because the star of the movie “The Terminator” 4 many years in the past, wore a T-shirt within the photograph that stated “terminate gerrymandering.”
Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell informed Politico earlier this month that “he calls gerrymandering evil, and he implies that. He thinks it’s really evil for politicians to take energy from individuals.”
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“He’s against what Texas is doing, and he’s against the concept California would race to the underside to do the identical factor,” Ketchell added.
Schwarzenegger, throughout his tenure as governor, had a starring position within the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the ability to attract state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and positioned it within the arms of an unbiased fee.
