The Texas redistricting heated controversy

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Texas Republicans released a proposed new congressional map Wednesday that would give the GOP a path to pick up five seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The proposal, which follows President Donald Trump's public pressing for a new map in the state, would shift district lines in ways that would target current Democratic members of Congress in districts in and around Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as two already endangered Democrats representing South Texas districts that Trump carried last year.

If it were enacted, the proposal could have a major effect on the battle for control of the House of Representatives in 2026. Republicans hold a slim, eight-seat advantage in the House right now, but this map could add extra padding as they seek to keep the House for the final two years of Trump's presidency. They already control 25 of the 38 congressional districts in Texas.

In a sign of how carefully the new lines are drawn to maximize the GOP's standing, Trump would have carried 30 out of 38 seats on the new map last year, none by single-digit margins. Democratic voters would be packed into eight districts that former Vice President Kamala Harris would have won by at least 15 percentage points apiece last year, according to analysis from the nonpartisan Texas Legislative Council.

The proposal may still change before lawmakers consider it further, and members of the committee may still refer new proposals for consideration throughout the special session.

The New York Times reported last month that members of Trump’s political operation had privately urged Texas Republicans to redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. And Trump publicly praised the efforts, pressing Texas lawmakers this month to take actions that would help the GOP gain five House seats.

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat representing Austin who helped organize a walkout by Democratic lawmakers in 2021 to counter a GOP attempt to tighten voting laws, told NBC News that she and her colleagues were ready to "fight with everything we got."

"What happens in Texas will inform what happens in other states. This is Trump’s attempt to block accountability, to block the voters, because he is afraid of the voters and what we will do to him in the 2026 midterms," she said.

How the new lines differ from the old
The lines in the newly proposed maps cut into the South Texas congressional districts held by Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, the Dallas-area district held by Julie Johnson and the Houston-area district held by Al Green. The newly proposed lines would also effectively combine the Austin-area districts held by Democrats Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett.

According to a review of the maps and demographic and voting data by NBC News, the proposed boundaries would appear to put more Latino voters in Cuellar’s new district — a move that bets that demographic shifts in the area are helpful for Republicans. Gonzalez’s proposed district includes substantially more white voters than the current version.

Green’s seat, meanwhile, would be redrawn to include substantially more white and Latino voters and far fewer Black voters. Green, who has represented the district since 2005, introduced articles of impeachment against Trump just last month. Another Houston-area district, the 18th, would be friendlier to Democrats, moving from one Harris won by almost 40 percentage points last year to one she would have won by 54 points.

Johnson, whose current district is majority nonwhite, would represent one almost evenly split between white and nonwhite voters, which Trump would have won by almost 18 points.

The Texas state House briefly reconvened Monday afternoon amid a nationally watched clash over the GOP majority’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional lines, with Republican lawmakers voting to approve civil arrest warrants targeting the dozens of Democrats who fled the state, blocking Republicans from proceeding with the plan.

The bulk of the 50-plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, where they’ve been welcomed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, in response to Texas, is pushing for a change in state law to allow redistricting in future years.

There, beyond the reach of the state sergeant-at-arms and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the warrants may have little practical effect. But back home, the Democrats face mounting fines, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to boot the Democratic lawmakers from office or send law enforcement to force them to return to the state.

Because House business requires a quorum, 51 out of the state’s 62 Democratic House members can, by remaining out of state, prevent the Republican-led state House from moving forward with legislation.

The absences deprived the House of its quorum, a reality confirmed quickly after legislators gaveled in Monday afternoon.

Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows admonished the dozens of Democrats who fled the state as having "abandoned their post and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent.

Republican lawmakers immediately, under House rules, locked the chamber doors and moved for the sergeant-at-arms to "send for" the absconded lawmakers "under warrant of arrest, if necessary." Burrows adjourned the chamber until Tuesday and told reporters shortly afterward that he followed through on the House vote and signed the civil arrest warrants.

It's not the first time Democrats in Texas have fled the state to gum up the legislative works in protest of legislation they oppose — they did so in 2021 over GOP-backed changes to voting laws. Democrats faced similar threats from Republicans that time, but this time, Abbott has raised the prospect of not only sending law enforcement after the Democrats but, asserting untested and tenuous legal authority, also pushing courts to declare their seats vacant and call for new elections to fill them.

Abbott has also suggested that Democrats who are raising money to support their quorum break may be committing felony bribery. (The Legislature enacted a $500-a-day punishment for breaking quorum after the Democratic effort in 2021.)

“I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,” Abbott said in a statement Sunday.

So far, Democrats have dismissed those threats. Trey Martinez Fischer, a prominent state House Democrat, told NBC News that Abbott's attempts were "desperate" and said, "I'll frame this arrest warrant on my wall with the rest," a reference to previous quorum breaks in 2021 and 2003.

It's possible Democrats don't have just Republicans back home to worry about.

Asked whether President Donald Trump would call upon federal agents to arrest the Texas lawmakers, an administration official told NBC News: “Abbott can handle his own state.”

Asked whether he would welcome help from the Trump administration bringing the lawmakers back to the House, Burrows replied: "There is nothing off the table."

What happens next?
The full scope of the Democrats’ plans isn’t clear. The special legislative session cannot last more than 30 days, but Abbott could continue to call new ones indefinitely.

While Pritzker has asked his staff to give the runaway Democrats logistical support and the high-profile nature of the fight could help them raise funds to extend their trip, eventually one side has to cave.

“Democrats are looking to this as a messaging opportunity more than as a political or legal or legislative strategy,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “The options they have are pretty limited, so the best they can hope for is to use this as a spotlight moment to shine a light on some of the issues that they have with the Republicans in Texas and Donald Trump.”

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat representing Austin who helped to organize the Democratic walkout in 2021 in response to election legislation, told NBC News last week that the effort four years ago was “wildly successful” because it led Republicans to remove parts of the legislation — though the bills eventually became law.

“We could have never anticipated that the amount of publicity we brought onto Republicans would have shamed them into taking out those most egregious parts — so here’s what I know: I know we’ll fight with everything we’ve got. This is situational. We’ll take it day by day, see what our best play is,” she said.

This type of jerrymandering stuff has gone on since the dawn of politics, I think in this country . We really prolly need to pressure Obama into running again ? maybe?

This type of jerrymandering stuff has gone on since the dawn of politics, I think in this country . We really prolly need to pressure Obama into running again ? maybe?

we are headed towards a civil war. wars start with the politicking.

This type of jerrymandering stuff has gone on since the dawn of politics, I think in this country . We really prolly need to pressure Obama into running again ? maybe?

The Texas Democratic lawmakers who decamped to Illinois to block a redistricting effort in their state faced threats of arrest and criminal charges if they didn’t return home.

But as their time away from the state dragged on, the threats grew more worrisome.

A group of state legislators who stayed at a hotel in St. Charles, a suburb outside of Chicago, endured two bomb threats on different days. It reached point that the Texas lawmakers quietly switched hotels and made an internal pact to keep those details private.

Even more concerning to them was what their families were dealing with back at home.

Some of the legislators said their homes in Texas received repeated pizza deliveries when they hadn’t made the orders. It’s now considered by law enforcement to be an intimidation tactic after a judge’s son was murdered by an assailant who posed as a delivery driver.

In another instance, state Rep. Diego Bernal said a man wearing a backpack showed up to his family’s residence in San Antonio. Bernal told NBC News in an interview that the individual represented himself as a worker for the water company and started asking for Bernal’s whereabouts, including when he’d be home and how long he had been gone.

The episode was caught on the family’s home surveillance camera, and Bernal said while he doesn’t know if the person was intent on doing harm, he was certain the man misrepresented himself, as he was not wearing the customary identifiers of a water department employee.

“Almost everybody has a story like that now. You’ve got him, you’ve got the pizza folks, you’ve got the people online saying to ‘hunt us down,’” Bernal said. “The atmosphere online has been really toxic, and one of the real disappointments about this is that when we’re in session, even when we really disagree, when we have big floor debates and fights, there’s still a level of respect, decorum and even personal compassion between members across the aisle. There’s been literally none of that while we faced a bomb threat, or while people are being told to hunt us down, or someone’s address might be leaked online.”

The threats have been weighing on the lawmakers, who have now been away from home for nearly two weeks as they sketch out their plans to return to Texas.

When asked what he was fearful of, state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said one word: “Minnesota.” He was referring to a Minnesota state lawmaker who was shot and killed along with her husband earlier this year when the suspect appeared at their home.

“I have left directions to my family: Do not open the door for anyone. We are deadly afraid there will be another Minnesota incident,” Wu said in an interview. “We get threats all the time. When the Republicans have people calling us communists and traitors and all these other things, it provokes a certain reaction. And that threat is real. We don’t take this lightly.”

Texas state Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., who leads the Democratic Hispanic Caucus, lamented the ongoing threats and what he described as intimidation tactics from Republicans as a troubling “sign of the times.”

He pointed to Roger Stone, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, posting a map with the location where the lawmakers were staying and GOP state Rep. Mitch Little naming the hotel they were staying in a TV interview where he said, “Whoever wants to go and get them, we fully support that effort.”

“You have people that want to be famous, and because Roger Stone said, ‘This is where they are,’ the next day there’s a bomb threat at that location,” Romero said. “It’s just a sign of the times. This is what happens when people use incendiary comments, when they say, ‘Go get ’em.’”

In response Little said in a message to NBC News: “That’s ridiculous. I saw their location on social media like everyone else. [The Department of Public Safety] was charged with bringing them back, and that’s exactly who I was talking about.”

And in a text message, Stone said that it was a news organization that first revealed the hotel where the lawmakers were staying.

Apart from security threats, lawmakers’ family members contended with other kinds of disruptions. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said earlier this week that the Department of Public Safety had special agents deployed in every region of the state, making clear they were prepared to take the lawmakers into custody at any moment.

“They are set up outside members’ homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day. So far, no one’s home. But the search continues and it will not stop,” Burrows said.

In a statement, Burrows denounced the threats lawmakers have faced. He also received a voicemail threatening his family, according to a copy of the voicemail reviewed by NBC News.

“Threats of violence and intimidation against elected officials have no place in our politics, and it is unfortunate that members on both sides of the aisle have been subjected to harassment,” Burrows said. “These threats will never be tolerated, and working with law enforcement, we will ensure that anyone targeting a Texas elected official or their family will face the full force of the law.”

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office also decried the threats against lawmakers and rejected assertions from Democrats that Republicans were fanning the flames.

“First and foremost, violence — or even the threat of it — is unacceptable and the Governor condemns it without reservation,” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement. “But to suggest that calling on Democrats to return to Texas and do their jobs somehow inflames threats is absurd.”

On Friday, Burrows gaveled the first special legislative session to a close and Abbott called for another one to begin hours later so lawmakers can consider, among other things, a new congressional map that could net Republicans as many as five more seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom countered on Thursday by calling on lawmakers in his state to set a special election that would allow them to pursue their own mid-decade redistricting effort.

A person close to the situation who has knowledge of the plans said Texas Democrats plan to return to their state “as soon as Monday.” They have set two conditions for their return: first, that the special session in Texas come to an end, and second that California Democrats release their own redistricting proposal.

Wu said Friday, “One of the two conditions have been met when the governor caved. We expect the other condition to be met next week.”

I don't know about that, but I'm glad to see Democrats finally beginning to play hardball. They should have started a long time ago. The right has been playing the game unfairly for decades now and I'm afraid the damage is irreversible at this point. It most certainly is irreversible if the Dems keep trying to play by the rules which don't exist in reality anymore.

First, Texas House Democrats refused to meet in their legislative chamber in an act of resistance. Now, one of them won't leave.

State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth said Monday she will remain locked in the Austin statehouse chamber until the House reconvenes Wednesday morning.

She is making the move after she refused Republican leaders' conditions that would have required her to sign off on a law enforcement escort before she would be allowed to go home after Monday's session.

It's another dramatic turn in the two-week saga involving state House Democrats who fled to other states this month, with most of them taking refuge in Illinois. The plan denied a quorum for Republicans to move forward during a special legislative session with a redrawing of Texas' congressional map, an act aimed at padding the GOP's U.S. House majority.

“I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts," Collier said in a statement that called her a "political prisoner" for refusing Republican "surveillance protocol."

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said Monday that the Democrats who had arrest warrants issued against them could not leave the chamber unless they agreed to specific conditions.

“Members who have not been present until today, for whom arrest warrants were issued, will be granted written permission to leave only after agreeing to be released into the custody of a designated [Department of Public Safety] officer appointment under the rules of the house,” he said, adding that the officers would “ensure your return Wednesday at 10 a.m.”

“For those still absent, civil arrest warrants remain in force,” Burrows added.

Collier is a seven-term Democratic lawmaker and former chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus who also represents a majority-minority district. Democrats have charged that the redrawn congressional maps would tear up those districts, stripping those voters of their voices.

He can't. He has already served two terms. The 22nd Amendment to the US constitution limits the President to serving 2 terms.