Democrats across US rip Texas House passage of new congressional lines
The map passed along party lines in an 88-52 vote. State senators are expected to consider the measure on Thursday for final approval before it heads to Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) desk.
'Tonight, Texas Republicans delivered Donald Trump the rigged map he demanded,' New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said, after the measure passed. 'Trump, Greg Abbott and their allies know they can't win on their record of stripping health care, tanking the economy and making families pay more with less.'
'This is a last gasp of a desperate party clinging to power,' she added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) echoed her disdain, saying the mid-decade redistricting effort signaled a sign of weakness for Republicans and an attempt to regain strength ahead of the midterms.
'You only try changing the rules if you think you're losing — and that's exactly what Texas Republicans are attempting to do,' Newsom shared in a post on social platform X.
'We want to give Californians the power this November to counter redistricting power grabs and stand for independently drawn maps in every state,' he added.
In a subsequent video message, Newsom offered the Texas GOP an 'off-ramp.'
'If they don't move. If Republicans stand back — they have an off ramp — this initiative, our efforts, don't go forward. We're doing this only in response to what he's doing,' he said. 'So if he doesn't want us to move forward, he has some capacity to influence that.'
The governor added later, 'we should let voters choose their representatives.'
The criticism comes after Texas Democrats, who fled the state to delay the vote, returned home following threats of arrest or involvement by the FBI, and as the state lawmakers racked up fines.
Newsom and Hochul have both vowed to fight Texas's effort with similar proposals to restructure district lines in their respective states.
Democrats in California released a proposed new map last week to offset the five seats the Lone Star State is poised to gain and has called for a special session in November to vote on the measure. Golden State Republicans pushed back on the effort, filing a petition to the state Supreme Court to halt the move, though their petition was rejected.
Newsom has pressed his Democratic counterparts in New York and Illinois to move quickly on their redistricting efforts.
'In New York, we'll confront Trump's legal insurrection head on,' Hochul said Wednesday. 'We'll meet him on the same field and beat him at his own game.'
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) also weighed in on the effort, lauding his counterparts for creating plans to ensure what he called an equal balance of power.
'Democrats need to strike back,' Ossoff said during an appearance on MSNBC's 'The Weeknight.'
'We have no time or luxury for high-minded hesitation, because Trump and MAGA are going to do everything within their power to hold on and to lock in one party rule in America,' he continued. 'That's the reality that we face.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
15 minutes ago
- New York Post
Mamdani-like Democratic Socialist Omar Fateh loses key endorsement in Minneapolis mayoral race
Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, a Democratic Socialist whose campaign has drawn parallels to Zohran Mamdani, lost the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) on Thursday. The decision to strip Fateh of his endorsement came after incumbent Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey challenged the DFL's voting process. 'After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention's voting process on July 19th, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention,' DFL Party Chairman Richard Carlbom said in a statement. 3 Democratic socialist Omar Fateh is running for Minneapolis mayor. X / @OmarFatehMN 3 Fateh's campaign has drawn similarities to Zohran Mamdani. Facebook/Omar Fateh 'As a result, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee has vacated the mayoral endorsement,' he added. Fateh, a 35-year-old Somali American state senator, had received more than 60% of the vote from delegates at the DFL's contested convention. 3 The decision to strip Fateh of his endorsement came after incumbent Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey challenged the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's (DFL) voting process. Minnesota DFL Frey, who was elected mayor in 2017 and reelected in 2021, was in charge of Minneapolis while the city burned during 2020's BLM riots in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer. Fateh is set to face off with Frey in the November mayoral election.
Chicago Tribune
15 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
California Gov. Newsom signs legislation calling for special election on redrawn congressional map
SACRAMENTO, Calif — California voters will decide in November whether to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year, after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at President Donald Trump's urging. California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for the special election. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has led the campaign in favor of the map, then quickly signed it — the latest step in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle. 'We don't want this fight and we didn't choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line, we will not run away from this fight,' Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman said. Republicans, who have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan, promised to keep fighting it. California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was 'wrong' to push for new Republican seats elsewhere, contending the president was just responding to Democratic gerrymandering in other states. But he warned that Newsom's approach, which the governor has dubbed 'fight fire with fire,' was dangerous. 'You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens?' Gallagher asked. 'You burn it all down.' In Texas, the Republican-controlled state Senate was scheduled to vote on a map Thursday night. After that, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's signature will be all that is needed to make the map official. It's part of Trump's effort to stave off an expected loss of the GOP's majority in the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections. What states are doing in the battle over congressional maps as Texas pursues plan President Donald Trump soughtOn a national level, the partisan makeup of existing districts puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. The incumbent president's party usually loses congressional seats in the midterms. The president has pushed other Republican-controlled states including Indiana and Missouri to also revise their maps to add more winnable GOP seats. Ohio Republicans were also already scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the Constitution does not outlaw partisan gerrymandering, only using race to redraw district lines. Texas Republicans embraced that when their House of Representatives passed its revision Wednesday. 'The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance,' state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican who wrote the bill revising Texas' maps, said. On Thursday, California Democrats noted Hunter's comments and said they had to take extreme steps to counter the Republican move. 'What do we do, just sit back and do nothing? Or do we fight back?' Democratic state Sen. Lena Gonzalez said. 'This is how we fight back and protect our democracy.' Republicans and some Democrats championed the 2008 ballot measure that established California's nonpartisan redistricting commission, along with the 2010 one that extended its role to drawing congressional maps. Democrats have sought a national commission that would draw lines for all states but have been unable to pass legislation creating that system. Trump's midterm redistricting ploy has shifted Democrats. That was clear in California, where Newsom was one of the members of his party who backed the initial redistricting commission ballot measures, and where Assemblyman Joshua Lowenthal, whose father, Rep. Alan Lowenthal, was another Democratic champion of a nonpartisan commission, presided over the state Assembly's passage of the redistricting package. Newsom on Thursday contended his state was still setting a model. 'We'll be the first state in U.S. history, in the most democratic way, to submit to the people of our state the ability to determine their own maps,' Newsom said before signing the legislation. Former President Barack Obama, who's also backed a nationwide nonpartisan approach, has also backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,' Obama said Tuesday during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm, noting that California voters will still have the final say on the map. Bipartisan group led by ex-Obama officials 'rolling the dice' on new remapping plan for Illinois legislatureThe California map would last only through 2030, after which the state's commission would draw up a new map for the normal, once-a-decade redistricting to adjust district lines after the decennial U.S. Census. Democrats are also mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps for mid-decade redraws. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. In Texas, outnumbered Democrats turned to unusual steps to try to delay passage, leaving the state to delay a vote by 15 days. Upon their return, they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring. California Republicans didn't take such dramatic steps but complained bitterly about Democrats muscling the package through the Statehouse and harming what GOP State Sen. Tony Strickland called the state's 'gold-standard' nonpartisan approach. 'What you're striving for is predetermined elections,' Strickland said. 'You're taking the voice away from Californians.'
Axios
15 minutes ago
- Axios
Newsom signs California redistricting measures in response to Texas bill
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two redistricting bills into law on Thursday evening after a Democratic-controlled Legislature passed them earlier in the day. Why it matters: The legislation is in direct response to Texas' Republican-controlled House passing a new congressional map at the urging of President Trump, and the consequences of both could prove pivotal in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election.
