Led by Trump, Republicans push to redraw election maps in multiple states
The White House has been driving the GOP redistricting effort, according to people familiar with the process, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Republicans are discussing ways to create new red seats in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio ahead of next year's midterm elections and carve out as many as five more in Florida, even as they face legal hurdles.
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Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘Texas law does not apply in Illinois': Gov. JB Pritzker draws line in sand as FBI ‘hunts down' runway Democrats
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Sunday refuted claims that President Donald Trump could force Texas Democrats to return to their state and cooperate with a Republican redistricting effort, insisting FBI agents had no jurisdiction to enforce Texas law in his state. Three members of the Texas state legislature left the state to dodge warrants for their arrest, a ploy by the state's Republican governor to force their attendance on a vote to redraw congressional district lines. Republicans are seeking to redraw lines and gerrymander up to five congressional seats for their party in Congress. The largely unprecedented mid-decade effort threatens to kick off a national redistricting war between Republicans and Democrats with real, tangible consequences for party representation and the kinds of politicians sent to Washington. By leaving the state and refusing to appear at the legislature, the lawmakers forced a halt to the special legislative session called by Abbott to handle the redistricting process. The governor and his allies have threatened to continue calling those sessions until quorum is reached and the redistricting effort concludes. 'We're providing them a safe haven, a place for them to visit and stay, breaking quorum, because they're heroes that are standing up not just for their own constituents and for the people of Texas and their rights but also for the rights of people all across the country,' Pritzker told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. In Illinois, Pritzker said his administration is refusing to cooperate with Texas authorities and says that he won't allow FBI officials to participate in illegal actions. 'Texas law does not apply in the state of Illinois, and there's no federal law that would allow the FBI to arrest anybody that's here visiting our state,' said the governor. He went on to attack both Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Trump, whom Pritzker said Abbott was trying to impress with an 'illegal' effort to boost GOP numbers in the House of Representatives — where Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' passed in July by only a one-vote margin. 'They know that they're going to lose in 2026 the Congress, and so they're trying to steal seats,' Pritzker claimed. '[T]he map that they put together, it violates the Voting Rights Act, and it violates the Constitution.' '[Trump] knows he's going to lose the Congress in 2026,' the governor continued. 'That's why he's going to his allies and hoping that they can save him. And we've all got to stand up against this. This is — it's cheating. Donald Trump is a cheater. He cheats on his wives. He cheats at golf. And now he's trying to cheat the American people out of their votes.' While Pritzker would claim that Abbott and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is running for re-election in a tight primary against a MAGA-backed opponent, were 'grandstanding' he would not rule out harboring his own similar national ambitions in the same interview. Pressed by Kristen Welker, Pritzker wouldn't say one way or the other whether he planned to run for president in 2028. The governor, a billionaire, is widely viewed as one of the Democratic Party's best-positioned candidates to run for the White House given his Midwestern ties, ability to self-finance and growing national profile. Cornyn told a local radio station in Texas this past week that agents in two Texas FBI offices were assigned to the effort, without giving specifics of their given roles or what orders they were under. Pritzker did tell Welker that he was focused on his 2026 re-election campaign, but added: 'I can't rule anything out.' The governor is one of several Democratic state leaders who've publicly suggested that they would consider their own redistricting efforts — explicitly to aid Democrats — were Republicans to go forward with their plan in Texas to do the opposite. Kathy Hochul, in New York, called for the dissolution of her state's Independent Redistricting Commission (NYIRC) while telling reporters that it would be illegal for Trump to weaponize the FBI against Texas lawmakers. Hochul also fired back at Cornyn, telling reporters that the FBI did not have the legal authority to 'hunt down' the three members of Texas's state legislature who absconded to break quorum. 'First of all, I have a lot of respect for the FBI, but I guarantee there are far more important pursuits that they should be engaging in, like human trafficking, breaking up drug cartels, stopping terrorist attacks here in New York City,' she told MSNBC. 'So I think this is an abuse of the power of the FBI to direct them to go after duly elected officials in the United States of America,' the governor said. 'If we've fallen that far, that makes our fight even more important, that all people stand up and say, 'we're not going to let you take away our democracy, and you're not going to hunt down our elected officials.''
The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Former AG says FBI can't return Texas lawmakers who fled state
Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the FBI does not have jurisdiction to return Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled their state. 'Texas lawmakers are digging in. You heard Governor Abbott there talking about the FBI, Senator Cornyn calling the FBI to help locate those Democratic lawmakers who fled the state. I wonder, do you think that the FBI has jurisdiction to intervene here and try to bring back those Democrats who are in other states?' NBC News's Kristen Welker asked on 'Meet the Press.' 'Short answer, no. I mean, you're asking the FBI to get involved, to find these legislators who are in the process of trying to defend democracy in Texas,' Holder responded. 'And they're not hard to find, but the question after that is, 'Well, what's the federal jurisdiction? What federal statute has potentially been violated? What's the basis for any federal government interaction?' And I would say that there is none,' he added. Texas Democratic state House members last weekend left the Lone Star State amid a redistricting battle between themselves and Texas Republicans. The move resulted in outcry from members of the state's GOP, who have been trying to move ahead with a controversial redistricting plan that could cost Democrats seats in Congress. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel approved a request to assist state and local law enforcement find the absconded Texas Democrats. 'I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,' Cornyn said in a statement Thursday morning. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) also said Thursday that the FBI was 'tracking down' the Democratic lawmakers. 'Texas DPS and the FBI are tracking down the derelict Democrats. They will be taken directly to the Texas Capitol,' Abbott wrote on the social platform X.
UPI
29 minutes ago
- UPI
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatens indefinite special sessions
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, pictured at the White House in February, has threatened rolling special legislative sessions as Democrats fled the state to thwart efforts to redraw Texas congressional maps. File photo by Francis Chung/UPI | License Photo Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot is threatening to call a series of rolling special legislative sessions to push the Trump administration's efforts to redraw voting district boundaries in the state, the governor said Sunday. Abbott argued during an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that he has the authority to keep the Texas Legislature in session indefinitely, which would extend penalties for Democrats who have fled Washington for liberal-leaning states in an effort to sidestep a vote on efforts by the Trump administration to redraw Texas' congressional voting district to favor the GOP. Democratic lawmakers from Texas fled the state to deny the legislature the quorum it needs to vote on the change to legislative districts, which they contend are being crafted to benefit Republicans and disenfranchise Democrats, many of whom are Black and Latino. Democrats flew to Illinois and other states run by Democratic governors, where they have received backing from state officials and politicians and who have criticized the GOP for its efforts to shape the voting districts in Republicans' favor. Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker has been vocal in his support of the Texas Democrats, and among the most vocal opponents of President Donald Trump and the Republican party's efforts to remake the voting districts. Abbott has called the Illinois congressional voting map a joke. "Governor Abbot is the joke," Pritzker said Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press. Pritzker bristled at allegations that Illinois' congressional lines have been gerrymandered, which Abbott and other members of the GOP have contended. Pritzker offered as evidence the fact that Trump won 44% of the statewide vote in the 2024 presidential election even though Republicans hold just 3 of the state's 17 congressional districts. Pritzker said Illinois took public opinion into account before designing Illinois's voting boundaries, and said they are fair. "We held public hearings, legislative hearings," Pritzker continued. "People attended them. They spoke out. There was a map put out. There we actually made changes to the map. And a map was passed, and it was done at the end of the census, to the decennial census. So that's how it's done in this country." Abbott pressed his point and said Texas Democrats would be arrested upon their return. "If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol," Abbott said Sunday. "If they want to evade that arrest, they're gonna have to stay outside the state of Texas for literally years." Abbott argued that Democrats are violating an article in the Texas constitution that requires them to act on measures before the legislature. He said because they are violating a constitutional mandate, "they are not fulfilling their oath of office, and they can be removed from office in this legal action that I am taking." Abbot has gone further, threatening to increase the redistricting margin for Republicans if Democrats fail to return to Austin.
