(The Center Square) – Only five days into the special session and 15 Texas House Democrats left the state to meet with the Democratic governors of California and Illinois looking for ways to oppose redistricting efforts underway in Texas.
The Texas legislature began a special legislative session on Monday to address 18 legislative items identified by Gov. Greg Abbott, including redistricting. Texas is expected to gain five congressional seats whereas Illinois and California are expected to lose seats after the 2030 Census. Under Democratic governors, Illinois and California have repeatedly lost residents, businesses and jobs. Under Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas leads the U.S. in job creation every month, ranks as the best state for business every year, and continues to report population records.
Texas House Democrats say Abbott allowed President Donald Trump to take over Texas because he added redistricting to the special session in response to concerns raised by the Department of Justice.
“As Abbott and Republicans use flood victims as pawns in their redistricting scheme,” House Democrats met with the governors “to get answers on how to help the Texans hurt by the major cuts in Trump’s budget bill,” the Texas House Democratic Caucus said.
State Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, who chairs the caucus, was appointed to the joint redistricting committee by House Speaker Dustin Burrows. The committee held its first hearing on Thursday before he left town.
The hearing was met with protests and at least one member of the public was forcibly removed from the hearing and arrested. Friday morning, the Texas Senate held its first redistricting hearing. Hearings are scheduled on Saturday and next week in both chambers.
Democratic State Sen. Carol Alvarado said Friday that her Republican colleagues were “working to redraw your congressional district under your feet.”
Texas Democrats have also organized rallies, meetings and protests across the state about the issue.
House Democrats left for California and Illinois because Abbott’s special session devolved “into chaos over his attempt to rig elections for Donald Trump,” the caucus said in a news release.
“Since Governor Abbott is acting like a child, we are going to find adults to go talk to,” said Wu, who led the delegation to Illinois. “We need a real plan from the governor to protect Texas families from the damage Trump and his allies have caused and continue to cause. It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican, Democrat, or an independent. We know this extremist agenda is not what you voted for.”
House Reps. Linda Garcia, Donna Howard, Ana Hernandez, Christina Morales, Richard Raymond, Toni Rose and Lauren Ashley Simmons joined Wu in Chicago.
“We will be making a lot of different asks, and some of them are very hard asks, but this is going to be made of everybody that we visit,” Wu said, KXAN News reported.
Rep. Rafael Anchia, who led the delegation to California, said, “There are dozens of dead kids and people are still missing from the Central Texas floods. But Donald Trump is focused on manipulating elections to help himself.”
State Reps. Nicole Collier, Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Jessica Gonzalez, Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos, Ramon Romero and Chris Turner joined Anchia.
The Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus said the trip was necessary “to stand up for our right to vote and against the Trump takeover of our maps.”
State Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Austin, who didn’t go on the trips, met with Democratic attorneys general and posted pictures of herself with them, saying, “Big things are happening. I had a chance to visit with the attorney generals from California, New Mexico, and New York about redistricting. Texas Democrats are fighting back and have a plan to fight Donald Trump and Greg Abbott’s election theft.”
In a protest outside of the Capitol on Thursday, the Texas AFL-CIO held a rally claiming Abbott “is letting Trump take over Texas with this redistricting scheme. … They are trying to stop Black and brown voters. They know they are in trouble and the only way to keep the power and control is to cheat.”
In the 2024 election, Trump made history by winning the largest percentage of Black and Hispanic votes in Texas history. He also won nearly all border counties, which are nearly all Hispanic, The Center Square reported.
The Texas Democratic Party chair was forced to resign last year after losing significant ground to Republicans; more Hispanics and Democrats continue to leave the party citing the border crisis, the economy and other issues.
