Texas House Tries to ARREST Dem Heroes After Getting CAUGHT CHEATING

If you need to cheat, you probably don't deserve to win!

Texas Democrats are still in Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts after fleeing the state over the weekend to deny the GOP majority the quorum required to conduct business — and they’re the biggest heroes of the Democratic Party.

After the Texas GOP dropped the worst congressional map I’ve ever seen (that also explicitly favors Republicans and attempts to flip five blue seats at Trump’s demand), Texas Dems were understandably livid, saying it removes value from Black and brown votes and unfairly skews districts. To fight back against the clear cheating and weaponization of the redistricting system, enough Dems fled the state to break quorum and prevent the state legislature from voting on the redrawn districts.

Beyond being forced to leave their families, scramble to find childcare, and more, leaving the state to break quorum also puts every member at risk of expulsion, required each person to pay a $500 daily fine, and potentially could lead to arrest, as the Texas House moved to allow arrest warrants for members who fled the state and Governor Greg Abbott said they’ll be detained upon reentry. However, Dems have done this before — they left the state to break quorum in 2021 to try to block a bill that would restrict voting rights, though they ended up running out of money and had to return to Texas, where the bill later passed. What’s different this time is that billionaire and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is providing logistical, moral, and maybe electoral support, and other Democratic governors are planning to follow suit.

In my recent conversation with Governor Gavin Newsom, I asked his thoughts on MAGA cheating to try to get ahead and win with their unpopular, dangerous policies, and he said, “Democrats can’t just sit there and act ‘holier than thou’ and watch this democracy completely be degraded, watch the rule of law be degraded…by Trump.” He also mentioned he might do what he can to make California even bluer… 👀

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also said she’s taking the kid gloves off — in a press briefing, she said, “I’m tired of fighting this fight with my hand tied behind my back… with all due respect to the good government groups, politics is a political process.” Redistricting in New York in Democrats’ favor could flip 3 seats blue.

And in case you were looking for the blatant hypocrisy that comes with every MAGA move these days, Republicans are piling onto TX-35 as a heavily gerrymandered district in Democrats’ favor — it was literally drawn by Republicans to force Democratic communities into one district. Additionally, Kevin Kiley, a Republican representative from California, just introduced a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting nationwide in response to Newsom’s redistricting plans — only because he could be redistricted out of his own seat. First of all, Abbott and Donald Trump were the ones to start the redistricting conversation, not Newsom — though neither of them, nor Texas as a whole, were mentioned in Kiley’s statement. Secondly, Republicans are probably going to hold the line and vote against this bill, essentially voting him out of his seat. Kevin Kiley, you’ve been dumped from the villa.

As for what comes next, the Texan legislators may try to hold out until Abbott’s 30 day special session elapses, though Abbott can simply call for another session. They could also theoretically wait until November, which is when the filing period for 2026 primary candidates opens to make sure the midterms go forward unchanged, but that would be a uniquely expensive fight. These Texan Dems are risking everything to fight for the rule of law, and the Democratic establishment needs to do anything it can to support them. Americans have been asking Dems to do more and fight back, and people like the Texas Dems and Governors Newsom and Hochul are finally doing just that — fighting fire with fire and treating this redistricting like the dirty cheating it is.

Watch my full interview with Gavin Newsom here ⬇️

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