Fleeing Failure: Texas Democrats Run and Hide

Gerrymandering Democrats get a taste of their own medicine.

It has been truly entertaining to witness prominent Democrats, led by the full-figured governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, whine and moan about Republican plans to alter the congressional map of Texas. As the gory details of their dirty deeds to kneecap Donald Trump in 2016 are trickling out day by day, on top of their legal warfare seeking to bankrupt and imprison him, it is particularly delicious to hear the Dems accuse the GOP of “cheating.” Of course, all this is accompanied by the usual diatribe about Trump’s “authoritarian” rule and “the end of democracy.” Democrats seem to be employing the same playbook that failed miserably in last year’s presidential campaign and somehow expect different results by stirring up voter outrage. But that’s a hard thing to pull off when your party has sunk to its lowest approval rating of the century. A pitiable 23% of Democrats hold a positive view of their party in the latest poll by the Associated Press.

Elections have consequences. Democrats made their own bed by advancing policies utterly detached from the mainstream of political thought — open borders, DEI, boys in girls’ sports, genital mutilation of children, etc. — and must now continue to sleep in it. Moreover, the plans to create as many as five reconfigured congressional districts, commonly known as gerrymandering, that will favor the GOP in the Lone Star State before the 2026 midterm elections, is a process employed by Democrats themselves for generations. But unable to take the heat and in hopes of making a vote on the plan impossible due to the lack of a quorum, Democrats are getting out of the kitchen, fleeing to the deep-blue stronghold of Illinois, where they have fallen into the welcoming arms of Pritzker, who by most accounts fancies himself presidential timber for 2028. And some have fled to New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul is also providing safe haven.

But now, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is calling their bluff, threatening to expel the offending members of the state’s legislature if they do not return home. “Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said on Fox News. “They forfeited their seats and are facing potential felony charges.”

Democrats Mired in Power Failure

Having lost the trifecta (presidency, House, Senate) and with the House so closely divided, the “out” party is locked in a matter of utmost urgency. “We will fight them politically. We will fight them governmentally. We will fight them in court. We will fight them in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the people of Texas and beyond,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) promised last week during a press conference in Austin, calling this an “all-hands-on-deck moment.”

A particular source of glee for Republicans in this process is that Jasmine Crockett, the outspoken radical leftist who serves Texas’ 30th Congressional District, would be redistricted if the plan succeeds, forcing her to run against a sitting Republican. Crockett called the effort “a power grab to silence voters.”

But there is more bad news for Democrats in their attempts to gain seats in the House. Unbeknownst to many, the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court has decided not to hear two lawsuits brought by Democrats aiming to redraw the battleground state’s eight congressional districts. The plan could have put two of the state’s six congressional districts currently held by Republicans in play.

Good for Me, But Not for Thee

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a redistricting plan of his own the same day as the Texas plan was unveiled. But he appears unlikely to succeed since it would require a special election this November to change the state’s constitution, which mandates that a commission, rather than the legislature, take charge of redistricting. But it’s not like the Democrat-dominated state hasn’t already been gerrymandered to the max. As Vice President JD Vance pointed out in a post on X last week, of the 52 California congressional districts, only nine are held by Republicans. So, even though the GOP regularly wins at least 40% of the vote in that state, a mere 17% of the state’s delegation is Republican.

In addition, the legislatures in several other deep-blue states have created lopsided Democratic majorities. New York re-drew its congressional map ahead of the 2024 election, rejecting a bipartisan map from its own commission in favor of one designed to make swing seats more Democratic. In Illinois, Republicans hold just three House seats out of 17, while Maryland has only one Republican seat out of its eight, and Oregon also has just one GOP seat out of its six congressional districts.

This demonstrates again that some elements of politics are animated strictly by power rather than ideology. And gerrymandering is prominent among them, a process employed by both major parties over the years. In politics, the golden rule is that the party with the gold rules. And in Texas, which Trump won in a 14-point blowout in 2024, Republicans are clearly feeling their oats and have the law on their side. The Democratic legislators fleeing the Lone Star State will have to return home eventually, but perhaps they believe their willingness to take extreme measures to avoid yet another black eye is enough by itself to prove to their beleaguered voters that they are at least putting up a fight.