U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, tried to block a member of the Texas House from closing out a news conference on Monday in Illinois, thinking she held the coveted final speaking slot.
Crockett joined a group of Texas House lawmakers who had fled to Illinois over the weekend to block Republicans from voting on a congressional redistricting map.
At least 100 of the 150 members of the Texas House must be present for a quorum so that business can be conducted, meaning that quorum had not been reached.
Republicans currently hold 25 of the Lone Star State’s 38 congressional seats, and if the change goes through, it could be 30 of the 38, according to Fox News.
The new map would force Crockett to run outside of her current safe Democratic district in the Dallas area, the outlet said.
Crockett took to the podium at the Warrenville, Illinois, news conference on Monday by first announcing, “I will be your last and final speaker.”
“They expect Democrats to kind of be the nice guys that we are,” she said of the Republicans. “They expect us to take the punch and say thank you. Well, I’m here to tell you not only are we going to punch back, but we about to beat you down.”
Crockett commended the Texas Democrats, saying, “They understand that we have a Temu Hitler in the White House right now that thinks he is going to become the dictator of the United States.”
Will Jasmine Crockett run for president?
The comment, made in reference to President Donald Trump, used the slang term for a cheap knockoff.
Crocket said her fellow congressional Democrats’ response to Republican redistricting plans is, “Do what you got to do, and I will fight and I will win and I will earn my seat back to the People’s House in D.C.”
She closed her remarks, believing the news conference was over.
But when Texas Democratic State Rep. Ron Reynolds, who was standing beyond Crockett, moved to take the podium, she waved him back, saying, “We’re done.”
Others around Crockett then appeared to convey otherwise to her, prompting her to insist, “No, we’re done. Yes, we are. We done. That’s what it says,” pointing to a document on the podium.
Texas House Democratic Minority Leader Gene Wu then stepped forward and said, “We were supposed to have Ron do the closing.”
“Go ahead, sorry,” Crockett said to Reynolds.
One certainly got the sense that Crockett, who certainly likes being the center of attention, seemed a little miffed by the whole situation. Nonetheless, she took her spot behind the true final speaker.
Democrats like Crockett do seem truly surprised and angered that Republicans would dare to pull the same political maneuver they have been doing for years with respect to redistricting.
So Texas Democrats have decided to flee their state to protest “partisan gerrymandering.”
Half of them are currently in Illinois, the most gerrymandered state in the country.
The other half are in New York, where Democrats redrew the congressional maps in their favor after… pic.twitter.com/9v1T1g6svj
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 4, 2025
Illinois, where they were having the news conference, is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country, with Republicans only having three of the 17 total House seats, despite Trump winning the majority of counties in the state and nearly 44 percent of the vote overall.
Here’s a heat map of the 2024 Trump-Harris election results. Somehow the Red parts of the State are in the super minority in both Chambers and hold only 3 congressional seats. Illinois legislative districts are completely gamed. We shouid be the last State to lecture Texas or any… pic.twitter.com/VlRStGahDM
— DuPage GOP (@DuPageCountyGOP) August 4, 2025
New York Democrats pushed through a new congressional map after Republicans picked up several seats in the 2022 midterm elections, according to the New York Post.
The Republican delegation in the last Congress was 11, but in the current one it dropped to seven.
NY Democrats ram through new congressional map that will give them an edge in elections — then changes law to limit challenges https://t.co/GgN3TDhADn pic.twitter.com/MnKGTcjtez
— New York Post (@nypost) March 1, 2024
The proposed Texas map is not necessarily some crazy gerrymandered creation like that seen in Illinois.
🚨 BREAKING: The Texas House Redistricting Committee JUST PASSED the new map that adds up to 5 Republican U.S. House seats for 2026.
It’s happening. pic.twitter.com/bI67kWN0tx
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 2, 2025
Democratic gerrymandering in states like Illinois, New York, and California is the reason the Republicans have such a narrow 219-212 majority in the House now, despite Trump’s convincing victory and Republicans picking up several key U.S. Senate seats last fall.
Spare the crocodile tears and the faux outrage at Republicans for doing in Texas what Democrats have already done elsewhere in their bid to control the House.
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