President Donald Trump told congressional Republicans on Tuesday that he’s hoping to gain an additional five Republican seats in the U.S. House — through a rare redistricting effort Democratic lawmakers have called a threat to democracy and an “unacceptable betrayal of Texans.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom even escalated, making it clear that his state’s party is more than ready to counter any aggressive gerrymandering that would provide GOP gains in Texas.
“Two can play that game,” Newsom told Pod Save America while floating the idea of a special election to modify California’s redistricting laws.
The Texas Legislature is just days out from a special legislative session, which Gov. Greg Abbott convened to address flood infrastructure and emergency alerts in the aftermath of the devastating disaster that killed more than 134 people in Central Texas on July 4 weekend — and Trump’s “revised congressional redistricting plan,” property taxes, abortion pills, and THC regulation.
Punchbowl News first reported that the president’s tentative proposal to “squeeze out five more red seats” targets Rep. Henry Cuellar’s district — along the U.S.-Mexico border, up through San Antonio — Rep. Julie Johnson’s district in northeast Dallas, and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr.’s district on the Gulf Coast. The two other targeted areas were likely to include parts of Houston and Austin, according to Punchbowl News reporters.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) said on Tuesday at a press conference with House Democratic leadership that Trump’s redistricting plan is a blatant attempt to “dilute the voices of people of color.”
“The scheme of the Republicans has consistently been to make sure that they mute our voices,” she added.
Emergency crews in Texas are still conducting searches for the many dozens of missing people swept away by the floods in the Hill Country on July 4, killing 134 people including 70 adults and 37 children in Kerr County alone. Officials at all levels of government have come under heavy scrutiny for the lack of flood infrastructure, emergency warning systems, and response to the climate change-fueled tragedy.
“Greg Abbott is choosing in this special session to put lines on a map over the lives that were on the line in Kerr County,” Texas House Democrats said in a statement. “This is how you steal an election.”
The special session “should be focused on flood preparedness, should be focused on restoring NOAA,” Newsom told Pod Save America. “Instead, they’re using that special session to weaponize for the next election. And that should scare the hell out of everybody.”
Republicans hold 25 out of the state’s 38 seats, and narrowly control the U.S. House of Representatives. The “simple redrawing,” as Trump described the plan, would allow the GOP to keep a firmer grasp of the House as midterm elections approach, where the party in power has historically fared poorly. During Trump’s first presidency, Republicans lost 40 House seats in the 2022 midterms.
“You know the old adage: a pig gets fat and a hog gets butchered,” said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Farmers Branch). “I think the Texas Republicans are pushing the limits on this one.”
Some Democrats have also proposed a walkout, or quorum-busting, in protest of the redistricting plan — “I would do everything I can to help aid them in being able to pull it off,” U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) told The Texas Tribune. In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office is prepared to “hunt down” lawmakers who “abandons their office and their constituents for cheap political theater.”
“If Democrats ignore their duty to their constituents by breaking quorum, they should be found and arrested no matter where they go,” Paxton wrote on X on Tuesday.
