Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) warned that GOP redistricting efforts in The Lone Star State symbolize a “five-alarm hearth” and urged Democrats to push again,.
“This can be a five-alarm hearth, what’s taking place in Texas. Donald Trump has already mentioned that if he does this to Texas, he desires to do that all throughout the nation,” the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus informed Rolling Stone in a Friday interview.
President Trump said earlier this week that he hopes Republicans will choose up 5 Home seats within the 2026 midterms because of the redistricting plan the state legislature hopes to work on throughout an upcoming special legislative session.
The president mentioned a “quite simple redrawing” might get the GOP 5 extra Home seats, including that he can be “OK” with blue-leaning states New York and California probably doing the identical to extend the variety of seats for Democrats.
“I believe we’ll get 5. And there may very well be another states we’re going to get one other three, or 4 or 5 as well as,” Trump mentioned on Tuesday. “Texas can be the largest one.”
It’s unclear if Casar’s district, which incorporates elements of Austin, can be affected.
“I don’t know, and nearly no members of Congress know. Even the Republican members say they haven’t seen these maps and that it makes them nervous,” Casar mentioned.
Casar, who won his reelection bid by practically 35 factors final November, mentioned the Texas map is “already unlawful and gerrymandered.”
“What Donald Trump desires to do by making an attempt to gerrymander 5 extra seats in Texas [is to] primarily finish the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as we all know it,” the Texas Democrat mentioned.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) mentioned final week that redistricting can be addressed through the subsequent legislative session attributable to “constitutional considerations raised by” the Justice Division.
Home Democrats have criticized each Trump and his Republican allies, who’ve pushed to vary Texas’s congressional strains earlier than the 2026 election cycle, arguing the trouble seeks to make sure Republicans retain the bulk within the decrease chamber.
“It’s painfully clear why Republicans are doing this: They know they’re going to lose the bulk subsequent 12 months,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who leads the Home Democrats’ marketing campaign arm, mentioned to journalists on Tuesday. “Republicans know they will’t win on their failed agenda, so that they’ve hatched a scheme to rig the Texas map to attempt to save their microscopic majority.”
In response to the redistricting efforts, Casar mentioned through the interview that Democrats should contemplate “each choice on the desk.”
“That features quorum breaks, filibusters, marching on the street, strain on the Speaker of the Home, [and] well-funded campaigning in opposition to each Republican member of Congress who goes together with this,” he mentioned.