Texas Democrats leave state to 'stop election rigging'
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said that his state would protect Democrats who left Texas over Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps. Photo: Reuters
Democratic lawmakers in Texas said on Sunday they were leaving the state to deny Republicans the quorum needed to redraw the state's 38 congressional districts, a move Republicans are seeking to protect their narrow US House majority in next year's midterm elections.
President Donald Trump has championed the redistricting plan, saying he expects the effort to yield up to five additional House Republicans.
Republicans hold a narrow 220-212 majority in the House of Representatives, with three Democratic-held seats vacant after members' deaths.
In a video shot in front of an airport, Democratic Representative James Talarico said the redistricting plan amounted to "rigging" the 2026 elections.
"If you're seeing this video, my Democratic colleagues and I have just left our beloved state to break quorum and stop Trump's redistricting power grab," Talarico said in the video posted on X on Sunday.
Several other Texas Democrats said on X they were headed to Illinois, whose governor is Democrat JB Pritzker.
Republican governor Greg Abbott said in a statement late Sunday that any Democrat House member who did not return would be removed from the Texas House.
"Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business", he said in his statement, adding that leaving amounted to an abandonment of the office.
States are required to redistrict every 10 years based on the US Census but the Texas map was passed just four years ago by the Republican-dominated legislature.
While mid-cycle redistricting occasionally takes place, it is usually prompted by a change in power at the legislature.
Republicans have pursued redistricting in a special legislative session that will also address funding for flood prevention in the wake of the deadly July 4 flash flooding that killed more than 130.
Under the current lines, Republicans control 25 seats, nearly two thirds of the districts in a state that went for Trump last year by a 56 percent to 42 percent margin.
Redistricting experts have said the plan could backfire if Republicans try to squeeze too many seats out of what is already considered a significantly skewed map. (Reuters)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
25 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump stands on White House roof, jokes about building nuclear missiles
Donald Trump made an unexpected appearance on Tuesday on a White House rooftop and joked about installing nuclear missiles at a time of escalating tensions with Russia. Advertisement The US president, flanked by bodyguards and under the protection of snipers, strolled for 20 minutes on the flat roof above the press room as he looked across to the site of his proposed new ballroom. Asked why he was on the roof, he replied he was just 'taking a little walk'. At one point, he said he was looking at 'another way to spend my money for this country'. Quizzed about what he intended to build, he joked 'nuclear missiles', before appearing to mimic the launch of a weapon with his arm. Reporters gather on the West Wing driveway as they wait for US President Donald Trump to appear on the roof of the White House on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters The United States and Russia have engaged in heated rhetoric for several days.
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
US House committee subpoenas Bill and Hillary Clinton in Epstein probe
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a congressional investigation that lawmakers believe may show links to President Donald Trump and other former top officials. Advertisement The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and eight former top law enforcement officials. The committee's actions showed how even with lawmakers away from Washington on a month-long break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high. Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation. But lawmakers from both major political parties, and many in the Republican president's political base, have refused to let it go. British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein are seen in a photo at Queen Elizabeth'ss log cabin at Balmoral. Photo: US District Court for the Southern District of New York/AFP Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein – and who else could have been involved. Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee nodded to that line of questioning last month by initiating subpoenas for the Clintons, both Democrats, and demanding all communications between President Joe Biden's Democratic administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein. The committee is also demanding interviews under oath from former attorneys general spanning the last three presidential administrations: Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Lawmakers also subpoenaed former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller. However, it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to successfully initiate the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee. A banner of Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump hangs in Grand Park during a protest against federal migration enforcement in downtown Los Angeles on. August 2. Photo: Reuters 'Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption of Donald Trump,' Representative Robert Garcia, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last month. 'What is Donald Trump hiding that he won't release the Epstein files?'
AllAfrica
4 hours ago
- AllAfrica
Is Trump really winning his trade war?
Last week, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order updating the 'reciprocal' tariff rates that had been paused since April. Nearly all US trading partners are now staring down tariffs of between 10% and 50%. After a range of baseline and sector-specific tariffs came into effect earlier this year, many economists had predicted economic chaos. So far, the inflationary impact has been less than many predicted. However, there are worrying signs that could all soon change, as economic pain flows through to the US consumer. Trump's latest adjustments weren't random acts of economic warfare. They revealed a hierarchy, and a pattern has emerged. Countries running goods trade deficits with the US (that is, buying more than they sell to the US), which also have security relationships with the US, get 10%. This includes Australia. Japan and South Korea, which both have security relationships with the US, were hit with 15% tariffs, likely due to their large trade surpluses with the US. But the rest of Asia? That's where Trump is really turning the screws. Asian nations now face average tariffs of 22.1%. Countries that negotiated with Trump, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines, all got 19%, the 'discount rate' for Asian countries willing to make concessions. India faces a 25% rate, plus potential penalties for trading with Russia. Students from an art school in Mumbai, India, created posters in response to Trump's latest tariff announcement. Photo: SOPA Images / Getty via The Conversation In the current trade war, it is unsurprising that, despite threats to do so, no countries have actually imposed retaliatory tariffs on US products, with the exception of China and Canada. Doing so would drive up their consumer prices, reduce economic activity, and invite Trump to escalate, possibly limiting access to the lucrative US market. Instead, nations that negotiated 'deals' with the Trump administration have essentially accepted elevated reciprocal tariff rates to maintain a measure of access to the US market. For many of these countries, this was despite making major concessions, such as dropping their own tariffs on US exports, promising to reform certain domestic regulations, and purchasing various US goods. Protests over the weekend, including in India and South Korea, suggested many of these tariff negotiations were not popular. Even the European Union has struck a deal accepting US tariff rates that once would have seemed unthinkable – 15%. Trump's confusing Russia-Ukraine war strategy has worried European leaders. Rather than risk US strategic withdrawal, they appear to have simply folded on tariffs. Some deals are still pending. Notably, Taiwan, which received a higher reciprocal tariff (20%) than Japan and South Korea, claims it is still negotiating. Through the narrow prism of deal-making, it is hard not to escape the conclusion that Trump has gotten his way with everyone – except China and Canada. He has imposed elevated US tariffs on many countries, but also negotiated to secure increased export market access for US firms and promised purchases of planes, agriculture and energy. Imposing tariffs on goods coming into the US effectively creates a tax on US consumers and manufacturers. It drives up the prices of both finished goods (products) and intermediate goods (components) used in manufacturing. Yet the Yale Budget Lab estimates the tariffs will cause consumer prices to rise by 1.8% this year. This muted inflationary impact is likely a result of exports to the US being 'front-loaded' before the tariffs took effect. Many US importers rushed to stockpile goods in the country ahead of the deadline. It may also reflect some companies choosing to 'eat the tariffs' by not passing the full cost to their customers, hoping they can ride things out until Trump 'chickens out' and the tariffs are removed or reduced. Despite Trump's repeated claims that tariffs are a tax paid by foreign countries, research consistently shows that US companies and consumers bear the tariff burden. Already this year, General Motors reported that tariffs cost it US$1.1 billion in the second quarter of 2025. A new 50% tariff on semi-finished copper products took effect on August 1. That announcement in July sent copper prices soaring by 13% in a single day. This affects everything from electrical wiring to plumbing, with costs ultimately passed to US consumers. The average US tariff rate now sits at 18.3%, the highest level since 1934. This represents a staggering increase from just 2.4% when Trump took office in January. This trade-weighted average means that, on typical imported goods, Americans will pay nearly one-fifth more in taxes. Earlier this year, many companies raced to bring inventory to the US before tariffs were imposed. Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty via The Conversation The US Federal Reserve is concerned about these potential price impacts, and last week opted to maintain interest rates at their current levels, despite Trump's pressure on Chairman Jerome Powell. And on August 1, economic data released in the US showed significant slowing in job creation, some worrying signs in economic growth, and early signs of business investment paralysis due to the economic uncertainty unleashed by Trump's ever-changing tariff rates. Trump responded to the report by firing the US Bureau of Labour Statistics commissioner, a shock move that led to widespread concerns that official US data could soon become politicized. But the worst economic impacts could still be yet to come. The domestic consequences of Trump's tariff policies are likely to amount to a massive economic own goal. Peter Draper is professor and executive director, Institute for International Trade, and director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Trade and Environment, University of Adelaide and Nathan Howard Gray is senior research Fellow, Institute for International Trade, University of Adelaide This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
