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Fox News
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Party of 'crazies': Dems comply with outrageous redistricting stunts due to primary threats, state rep says
Many of the Texas Democrats who fled the Lone Star State to Democrat-stronghold states amid a Republican redistricting effort are complying with the political stunt out of fear of being primaried by "someone even crazier" within the party, Republican Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview. "If they were to come back, they would lose in a primary to someone even more socialistic than they are," Cain told Fox News Digital in a Thursday Zoom interview. "So yeah, they're actually there out of fear, not out of fear of the Republican legislation, but out of fear of their own people. And so they'll continue to sit out of state at their own detriment, all because of the fear of being primaried by someone even crazier than they are." "I can tell you that many of them don't want to be there. They know that ultimately they're going to lose, but because their party's run by a bunch of crazies, they have to be there," he continued of the Democrats who left the state ahead of Monday. Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers fled Texas for liberal bastions such as Illinois, Massachusetts and New York to prevent a quorum for a special session as state lawmakers prepared to vote on a redrawn congressional map for the state ahead of the 2026 midterms. State lawmakers have reported they plan to be absent from the state until the end of August, when the special session ends. Texas law requires at least two-thirds of lawmakers in either chamber be present to proceed with legislative matters, with the Democrat minority party currently holding 62 seats in the Texas house to the GOP's 88. The Texas House has been at a standstill since the Democrats fled over the weekend. Six Democrats are in the Austin area this week, Cain explained, meaning six more Democrats are required before the body can reach a quorum. Cain said that he heard three additional Democrats are in the Houston area and likely "taunting" Republicans to potentially arrest them over their absence. "They're older members, and they're kind of taunting us to arrest them with the idea that 'who would arrest grandma?' It's kind of a clever play by the Democrats," he said. Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows signed arrest warrants for the absent Democrats on Monday, following the state House approving of such warrants and Gov. Greg Abbott calling on the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the "delinquent Texas House Democrats." The arrest warrants are largely viewed as symbolic as they only apply to those within state lines. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) reported Thursday that the FBI agreed to his request to help assist in locating the whereabouts of the derelict lawmakers as Republicans work to reach a quorum upon the Democrats' returns. "I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas," Cornyn said in a Thursday news release. "We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities." Cain told Fox Digital that Republicans are doing "everything in our power" after Democrats fled the state, including launching investigations into potential bribery. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation Wednesday into former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's nonprofit, Powered by People, over claims it was helping fund the Democratic exodus from the state, which he described as a political bribe. "They're being investigated for potential bribery," Cain told Fox Digital. "And the Attorney General has launched an investigation into Beto O'Rourke's organization for bribery as well. I'll tell you, under the Texas Penal Code, offering or accepting or knowingly doing … a benefit to an elected official in exchange for their vote or some kind of discretionary action, like showing up to work, is considered bribery here in Texas. And it kind of looks like that and we need to launch an investigation." In response to the investigation, O'Rourke described Republicans in Texas as "thugs" who are attempting to "steal our country" and accused Paxton of bribery himself. Democratic governors, such as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, have since opened their proverbial doors to the Texas Democrats who fled the Lone Star State. Cain remarked the irony is not lost on him that the Democrats fled to states that have long histories embracing gerrymandered voting lines. "The irony of this entire walkout, of course, they go to states that are some of the worst gerrymandered states that we've seen. "We're now being able to expose and show the world the maps of these hypocrites. And they also call themselves brave. But as to quote Governor Greg Abbott, they're very un-Texan, Texans don't run from a fight," he continued. Texas lawmakers have used quorum breaking as a political strategy going back to 1870, and last unfolded in 2021, when Democratic state lawmakers fled to Washington, D.C., out of an attempt to block the passage of voting and election integrity legislation, as well as the 2004 walk-out also over redistricting. Cain said history shows such stunts have not proven fruitful for Democrats. "Democrats lost seats every time they came back – might be a hint that the voters don't appreciate those things. We also still passed the legislation. So it's really a costly, futile move whereby it's just pure theater, a chance to go and fundraise, but really they're not standing up for democracy at all. Rather, they're just being pure obstructionists and obstructing the will of the people that have elected them," he said. President Donald Trump has encouraged redistricting in Texas, including remarking on Tuesday that efforts to redistrict in Texas could lead to the GOP picking up five seats. "In California, it's all gerrymandered," Trump said during an interview with CNBC Tuesday. "And we have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats." For Cain, redistricting in Texas is needed as its demographics have shifted since 2020, when the state last redrew its voting maps. "Over the last few years, Texas has drastically changed, our population has tremendously changed, not just from the open border policies of Joe Biden, but also because of our great economic conditions that have caused people to flee California and Illinois and Boston to come and want to live here. In order to reflect that population change, we need to update our map," he said.
Fox News
08-08-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain speaks with Fox Digital on Dems' redistricting stunt
Republican Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain spoke with Fox News Digital Aug. 7, 2025, amid his Democrat lawmaker's ongoing redistricting stunt of fleeing the state.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Analysis: The 2025 Texas House, from right to left
The Texas House's roll-call votes during this year's regular legislative session allow us to once again rank the chambers's members from the conservative to liberal ends of the House's ideological spectrum — in relation to each other. The 88 members of the Republican House delegation hold a wide range of ideological positions. The conservative end of the Texas House GOP caucus is anchored by Mike Olcott of Fort Worth, Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, Steve Toth of Conroe, David Lowe of North Richland Hills, Brian Harrison of Midlothian, and Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth. The other end of the GOP caucus ideological spectrum is anchored by Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Ken King of Canadian, John Lujan of San Antonio, Stan Lambert of Abilene, and Dade Phelan of Beaumont. The speaker of the House, Republican Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, by custom does not ordinarily vote and is not included in the analysis here. Within the Republican delegation, three distinct blocs of representatives appear in the data. At the most conservative end of the House GOP ideological spectrum is a group of 17 representatives ranging from Olcott and Cain to Mitch Little of Lewisville and Matt Morgan of Richmond. As a group, these 17 representatives are significantly more conservative than more than two-thirds of their fellow Republican legislators. Olcott is significantly more conservative than all 86 of his fellow Republicans and Cain than 84 of 86, while Little and Morgan are both significantly more conservative than 60 of 86. At the least conservative end of the House GOP ideological spectrum is a group of 17 representatives ranging from Guillen and Geren to Brad Buckley of Salado and Pat Curry of Waco. As a group, these 17 representatives are significantly less conservative than more than two-thirds of their fellow Republican legislators. Guillen is significantly less conservative than 76 of 86 of his fellow Republicans and Geren is significantly less conservative than 73 of 86, while Buckley is significantly less conservative than 64 of 86 and Curry is significantly less conservative than 61 of 86. Although Guillen is the least conservative Republican, he still has a voting record that is significantly more conservative than that of the most conservative Democrat. The majority of House Republicans — 53 out of 87 members — occupy a middle ground between these two ideological poles, ranging from Brooks Landgraf of Odessa to Valoree Swanson of Spring. Cole Hefner of Mount Pleasant is the median member of the Republican Caucus, with half of the GOP representatives more conservative, and half less conservative, than Hefner. The 62-member Democratic House caucus also reflects a wide range of ideological positions on the left. The Democratic delegation is anchored at its liberal end by Christina Morales of Houston, Ron Reynolds of Missouri City, Ana-Maria Ramos of Richardson, Terry Meza of Irving, Jessica González of Dallas, and Vikki Goodwin of Austin. The Democratic delegation is anchored at its least liberal end by Terry Canales of Edinburg, Richard Peña Raymond of Laredo, Sergio Muñoz Jr. of Palmview, Armando 'Mando' Martinez of Weslaco, Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass, and Philip Cortez of San Antonio. As with their Republican colleagues, three distinct blocs of Democratic legislators also appear in the data. At the most liberal end of the Democratic ideological spectrum, six representatives stand out. They range from Morales and Reynolds, each of whom is significantly more liberal than 56 of their 61 fellow Democrats, to González who is significantly more liberal than 48 of 61 and Goodwin who is significantly more liberal than 45 of 61. At the other end of the Democratic ideological spectrum are 11 Democrats who are significantly less liberal than more than two-thirds of their fellow Democrats. They range from Canales who is significantly less liberal than 60 of his 61 fellow Democrats and Peña Raymond who is significantly less liberal than 59 of 61 to Harold Dutton Jr. of Houston and Bobby Guerra of Mission, each of whom is significantly less liberal than 42 of 61. Although Canales is the most conservative Democrat, he still has a voting record that is significantly more liberal than that of the least conservative Republican. The majority of House Democrats —45 out of of 62 members — occupy a middle ground between these two ideological poles, ranging from Maria Luisa Flores of Austin to Suleman Lalani of Sugar Land. The median House Democrats in 2025, who represent the absolute center of the Democratic House caucus, are Diego Bernal of San Antonio and Sheryl Cole of Austin. Political scientists have for decades used roll-call votes cast by members of the U.S. Congress to map their location on the Liberal-Conservative scale along which most legislative politics now takes place. This ranking of the Texas House members, which has been conducted biennially since 2011, does the same thing, by drawing on the 2,666 non-lopsided roll-call votes taken during the 2025 regular session of the Texas Legislature. Non-lopsided votes are those where at least 2.5% of the representatives who cast a vote are on the losing side. Unlike in analyses prior to December of 2023, information from votes on bills located on the House Local & Consent Calendar are not included in this analysis for the reasons cited in the 2023 post special session ranking. As with previous rankings conducted in 2023 (post special session), 2023, 2021 (post special session), 2021, 2019, 2017 (post special session), 2017, 2015, 2013 and 2011, this one uses a Bayesian estimation procedure belonging to the family of methodological approaches that represent the political science discipline's gold standard for roll-call vote analysis. State representatives are ranked from most liberal to most conservative (relative to each other) based on their Liberal-Conservative Scores, with the 95% credible interval (CI) for this point estimate also provided. If two legislators' CIs overlap, their positions on the ideological spectrum might be statistically equivalent, even if their Lib-Con Scores are different. In no case in 2025 did the CI of a House Republican overlap with that of a House Democrat, indicating that every Republican is significantly more conservative than every Democrat, and every Democrat is significantly more liberal than every Republican. Mark P. Jones is the Political Science Fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Disclosure: James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and Rice University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase. : A previous version of this story listed the wrong hometown for Rep. Nate Schatzline. He is from Fort Worth.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas House panel unanimously rejects bill to put Austin under Legislature's thumb
A bill that would have turned Texas' capital city into the "District of Austin" was dead on arrival in the House State Affairs Committee on Wednesday. In other words, the "DOA" bill was DOA. House Bill 274 by Republican Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park sought to make many of the actions of the Austin City Council subject to review by the speaker of the House and the lieutenant governor. Cain had cited crime and sundry mismanagement allegations as the basis for his bill. The 11 members of the State Affairs Committee apparently thought the measure was kind of silly. Sometimes when lawmakers want to kill a bill, they try talking it to death. This time, they giggled the life out of it. More: Here's what Austin's city manager is proposing for police, property taxes in budget draft State Affairs Chairman Ken King, a Republican from the Panhandle city of Canadian, chuckled as he said Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, had made a motion to pass the bill on to the full House for consideration. Then when Geren actually voted no, there was a snicker or two. By the time King cast the final vote and announced the 11-0 tally, many on the House panel and in the committee room laughed out loud. It was unclear whether Cain found the exercise, which took less than three minutes to play out, amusing. He doesn't serve on the State Affairs Committee and he did not return a Statesman call seeking comment. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin to remain a city, and not a 'district' overseen by Legislature
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘District of Austin' bill voted down by Texas House committee
Editor's Note: The above video is KXAN's previous coverage of HB 274. AUSTIN (KXAN) — House Bill 274, otherwise known as the 'District of Austin' bill, was voted down 11-0 by the House Committee on State Affairs PAST COVERAGE | 'Throwing stones': Lawmaker behind District of Austin bill challenged in hearing The bill, which was introduced March 19, would have stripped the city of Austin of its governing authority and turned it into the District of Austin. A similar bill was filed in 2022, but it was also voted down. Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Houston, who authored the bill, previously said HB 274 would help ensure Austin remained accountable to Texas by establishing a District of Austin as the official city of the state's government. Cain cited the city's 'surging crime' as a reason for the bill; however, he did not cite a specific report for his claim about Austin's crime rates. Previously, the city of Austin released a memo, opposing the bill and calling it 'vague' and lacking clarity on how the District of Austin would be governed. In a previous hearing, state lawmakers expressed similar concerns. 'Austin's Violent Crime Rate for 2024 is 59.6% lower than Houston, 43.8% lower than Lubbock, and 21.4% lower than San Antonio according to the Texas Department of Public Safety Uniform Crime Reporting System Crime in Texas Report Top 25 Violent Crime Comparison report,' the memo said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
