As Trump pushes Texas takeover in fight for House, Democrats plot their counterpunch

CNN

4 days ago

House Democrats are actively preparing for political trench warfare against the GOP in next year's midterm battle, with talks taking shape behind the scenes to mount a counterattack against President Donald Trump's power play in Texas that aims to cement GOP control of Washington for the rest of his second term.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his political team have begun privately shaping a legally risky — and likely expensive — strategy to redraw House maps in several Democratic-controlled states, according to Democrats briefed on the effort. They are exploring their plans in California, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota and Washington state in hopes of flipping at least a handful of Republican seats next November.
It's a clear attempt to retaliate against the GOP's aggressive redistricting effort to boot out as many as five Democrats in Texas — a move that will get publicly underway this week and one with the potential to give Republicans a major leg up in their fight to keep control of the House.
In an interview at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, Jeffries made clear that his party was ready to respond in-kind to the GOP.
'We have a responsibility of making sure that we look at every single state of the union and do what we can to ensure that we maximize fairness in those jurisdictions,' the New York Democrat said. 'Some of the best and brightest lawyers in the country are looking at every single aspect of what's possible in these states.'
It's an extraordinary push from top Democrats, who could soon embrace the kind of GOP tactics that Jeffries described as 'part of a scheme to rig the midterm elections' — especially since the redrawing of congressional maps typically happens only at the beginning of a decade to reflect changing populations and demographics.
Even House Democrats privately acknowledge their emerging plan may all be moot if it's fully blocked in court, according to more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and campaign operatives involved in the discussions. Others are wary of eschewing their party's decadeslong push for fair voting rights and commissions in states that attempt to draw their congressional boundaries free from partisan politics.
But plenty more Democrats say they have no choice but to try to fight Trump as they face immense pressure from their base and can't risk being relegated to the minority for two more years — especially since only a handful of seats could determine the next majority.
'We got to fight fire with fire, so I support anything the governor [Gavin Newsom] wants to do,' said Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is part of the California delegation that's been meeting privately with Jeffries on the matter. 'We shouldn't just admire the problem.'
Texas Republicans and the Justice Department argue that the move is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered.
Asked about Jeffries' accusation that the GOP was attempting to 'rig the election,' Speaker Mike Johnson fired back.
'That's ridiculous. Hakeem Jeffries is also playing political games,' the Louisiana Republican told CNN when asked about the Democratic leader's comments.
In the interview with CNN, Jeffries specifically called out three states: California, New York and New Jersey. But the party is also looking closely at Minnesota and Washington state, Democratic sources said.
And when asked about the push to redraw New Jersey's boundaries, Jeffries said it is 'incumbent upon all of us to take a close look at, how do we ensure that the congressional map, writ large, is as fair as possible in advance of the midterm election?'
Jeffries said he plans to sit down with his governor, Kathy Hochul, sometime in August about the maps in New York. The state just redrew its lines last year without any drastic changes to seven seats currently held by Republicans, but Jeffries suggested that more could be done to help Democrats there: 'Let me just simply say the maps in New York are not as fair as they could be.'
Rep. Greg Meeks, a fellow New Yorker and a Jeffries ally, was blunter: 'You can't go to a fight where they have a gun and you have a knife.'
The Democratic leader and his members have also been in close contact with the California governor, who says he is moving ahead with an expedited push to redraw his state's congressional maps before next November, according to two people involved with the discussions. Behind the scenes, their focus has been on how California can overcome its own law that hands over map-drawing power to a nonpartisan redistricting commission.
It's a hurdle that Democrats face in some blue states across the country: Governors and legislatures have awarded power to independent commissions to limit partisan gerrymandering — unlike in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott and state lawmakers have full control. Democrats privately acknowledge this is legally complicated and likely extremely costly, but suggest it is not insurmountable.
'If Republicans want to play by these rules, then I think that we shouldn't have one set of rules for one and the other set of rules for another. I think we need to even the playing board,' New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN.
Such discussions in Democratic circles all began in the last two weeks after Abbott declared that he would move forward with asking the state legislature to redraw Texas' maps, at the request of the White House. Trump and his team have said they believe they can squeeze five more seats out of the state — something he conveyed to the Texas GOP delegation last week. (Republican leaders believe it is more likely they can get two or three, according to two people familiar with those discussions.)
New seats in Texas — plus an additional two or three seats that could come out of the GOP's separate map-drawing effort in Ohio — may be enough to hinder Democrats' chances of reclaiming the House.
Rep. Marc Veasey, who is one of the Democrats being targeted in Texas, told CNN that if Republicans are successful in his state, his party will face an uphill battle to flip the House.
'Obviously it would make it much harder,' Veasey said. 'I think the biggest thing that keeps Trump up at night is losing the majority in the US House of Representatives and having to answer to Democrats and be held accountable.'
The Texas Democrat said his party has no choice but to try to make up ground in California, New York and anywhere else it can: 'Hell yeah, I would encourage us to do that. … I think you have to.'
Many California Democrats feel the same.
'I don't take anything off the table,' former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN, adding that the state can get its voters to approve the change. 'We would not have any majority in the Congress without that big, vast number [of Democratic seats in California], but we always want more, so one way or another. So I don't take anything off the table.'
Rep. Lou Correa of California said the stakes are 'too high' not to try to squeeze out more seats, adding: 'It's gonna be a knockout midterm election like you haven't seen in a long time.'
But there are some members — particularly progressives, who have long championed voting rights — who are uncomfortable with the Democratic push.
'I think it is unacceptable and dangerous for essentially what people marched during the Civil Rights Movement for,' Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CNN when asked whether states like California and New York should consider the same approach as his own state.
And some Democrats who sit in swing districts worry about the fallout.
New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Long Island, said changing the maps now is 'probably not' a good idea.
'Traditionally people do this every 10 years after the census, so that seems like the normal thing to me,' Suozzi said.
But Jeffries predicted that it's the Republican push that is a risky one, contending that changing solidly red districts in Texas — in order to make Democratic districts more competitive — could have the effect of putting more swing voters in GOP strongholds.
'We believe it may actually backfire, and that they may draw lines that endanger their Republican incumbents, who we will have a better chance of defeating in the 2026 midterm election,' Jeffries said.
So far, Texas GOP leaders and the White House have shared few details about their soon-to-be-unveiled maps with the state's House delegation. That will change in the coming days, with the state legislature returning for a special session this week to consider them.
Texas Republicans are now largely on board with the White House's plan, though one member of the delegation told CNN last week that there is a real fear the White House may overreach and end up creating ultra-competitive seats that Democrats can win.
Texas Rep. Pete Sessions — who lost his seat in Trump's first midterm in 2018, just before state Republicans redrew their map to better protect GOP incumbents — is taking a cautious approach. He's been in touch with the White House personally, though he declined to share details of those conversations.
'As you recall, New York did this a year or two ago,' Sessions said, referencing the Democratic effort that ended up costing their party seats after the map faced legal challenges. 'Just because the legislature does something, it's still subject to the law.'
Other Texas Republicans are encouraging Trump's team to be even more aggressive.
'I support the governor in his effort because we need to make sure we keep the House. We got to keep the House,' Rep. Troy Nehls told CNN. 'If we can get five, let's get five. Yeah, I'd like to try to get six.'
Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who leads the House GOP campaign arm, said he's staying out of the redistricting fight. But he acknowledged that it could bolster his party's chances of keeping the chamber next year.
'Any seats that we gain before Election Day would be nice,' Hudson said. While he said any Democratic gerrymandering effort would be 'out of my control' he also stressed that states like California have vastly different laws than Texas.
'I'll deal with the battlefield that I'm presented, and right now it looks really good for Republicans.'