Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) said Tuesday that “nothing will be off the table” in response to the plan by Texas Republicans to redraw their congressional boundaries in a way they hope will give the state five more GOP seats in Congress after the midterms.
“We have a message for President Trump and Gov. Abbott: We are watching you,” Stratton told reporters during a press conference, which included Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) and Texas Democrats.
“In Illinois, we don’t sit on the sidelines. In Illinois, we don’t take kindly to threats, and in Illinois, we fight back. If Trump and Texas Republicans won’t play by the rules, we will look at every option available to stop their extreme power grab, and nothing will be off the table,” said Stratton, who is running for Senate next year.
Pritzker noted that redistricting was “not something that any of us want to have to do,” saying he hoped Texas Democrats’ efforts would be successful at curbing the implementation a new map. But, he added, “we’re fighting for democracy.”
“There are no rules anymore, apparently, and so we’re going to have to play by the set of rules that well, that are being set out in front of us, which frankly, none of us believes is the right way to operate,” he said.
The Texas GOP at the behest of President Trump are redrawing the state’s congressional maps to benefit Republicans. Redistricting was not originally on the agenda items for the special session Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called but was added later. The move is a power play in that lines are usually not withdrawn until after a new census.
Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts beginning Sunday to deny Republicans quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed present to conduct legislative business, as the GOP tries to pass the new congressional lines.
Texas lawmakers are in a special legislative session called by Abbott over redistricting, among other agenda items.
A Texas House committee passed the new GOP-friendly map last week, teeing it up for a vote on the House floor. With Democrats out of the state, however, those efforts are stalled.
California and New York have signaled that they’re exploring their options over how to pass new maps in light of Texas Republicans’ move to redraw their map in the middle of the decade; Stratton’s announcement suggests more blue states could follow.
Although Democrats are criticizing Republicans in Texas for passing an even more gerrymandered map, Democrats have also been criticized for doing the same in states like Illinois and New York — in some cases even seeing their maps struck down because of it.
Stratton, Pritzker, Martin and others convened in Illinois one day before the anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which has been used to help ensure fair representation for communities of color in election maps.
“Republicans are running scared that voting for this monstrosity will make them lose their majority, and they certainly will, which is why they’re trying to disenfranchise Texas voters by packing and cracking them into districts to dilute their voting power, a clear and blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act,” Martin said, referring to Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill.
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