\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDemocratic lawmakers in Texas are leaving the state in a last-ditch bid to prevent Republicans from further gerrymandering their congressional map at the request of President Donald Trump. If successful, the GOP\u2019s redistricting effort could potentially give the party an additional five seats in the 2026 midterms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tFacing the possibility of arrest under the orders of Republican Governor Greg Abbott, as well as steep financial penalties for their absence, 30 Texas Democrats have fled the state to Chicago, Illinois. Their absconding will deny the state legislature the necessary quorum needed to maintain a legislative session, a strategy they used (to no great effect) when Republicans aggressively gerrymandered the state\u2019s maps in 2021.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe choice was clear: Stand by while Abbott silences millions of Black and Latino voters, or use every tool available to stop this assault on our democracy. This corrupt special session is over,\u201d Texas House Democrats wrote Sunday afternoon in a statement on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) threatened to forcibly return the lawmakers to the capitol. \u201cDemocrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,\u201d he wrote on X. State Republicans have rushed through what is supposed to be a once-in-a-decade redistricting process under the cover of a special session, with little time for public review.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Trump and Republicans looking to maintain their majority in Congress through redistricting in Texas, Democrats have in turn begun considering redistricting efforts in Democratic-led states, such as California and Colorado, as a countermeasure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tDemocratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin told News Nation on Sunday that \u201cwe\u2019re going to fight fire with fire. If Texas wants a showdown \u2014 which they clearly do \u2014 we\u2019re going to give them the showdown. And I talked with a number of Democratic governors around the country and they\u2019re already preparing to follow suit here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tTexas state representative and chair of the House Democratic Caucus Gene Wu said <\/em>on Sunday that \u201cthis is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019re not walking out on our responsibilities; we\u2019re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,\u201d he said. \u201cAs of today, this corrupt special session is over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Democratic lawmakers in Texas are leaving the state in a last-ditch bid to prevent Republicans from further gerrymandering their congressional map at the request of President Donald Trump. If successful, the GOP\u2019s redistricting effort could potentially give the party an additional five seats in the 2026 midterms.\u00a0 Facing the possibility of arrest under the orders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[847,581,6172,7551,1436,199,1010,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-13882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-block","9":"tag-democrats","10":"tag-flee","11":"tag-gerrymandering","12":"tag-plan","13":"tag-state","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}