As Texas Republicans attempt to redraw their congressional districts to widen their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of competitive midterm elections expected in 2026, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, said Democrats should "meet fire with fire."
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate told former Biden advisor Neera Tanden at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on Tuesday that he supports California Gov. Gavin Newsom's own attempt at redistricting the blue state to deepen Democrats' own congressional control.
O'Rourke rationalized California's redistricting because "we already have an authoritarian president." And while he acknowledged the irony of his party following suit on something Democrats "don't like Republicans doing," O'Rourke said, "This is for the very future and fate of the republic. We lose it, you will never, ever get it back."
"Not only do I think [Newsom] should do this, I don't think he should wait for Texas," O'Rourke said. "In other words, why the f--k are we responding and reacting to the other side instead of taking the offense on these things?"
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O'Rourke criticized the Democratic Party for caring "more about being right" than about "being in power." He said Democrats, who are grappling with losing control of the White House and Congress in 2024, "have to be ruthlessly focused on winning power."
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If Democrats don't fight back, O'Rourke said, "a state that was already something less than democracy is about to descend even further."
The GOP-controlled state legislature in Texas began a special session on Monday, and one of the key items on their agenda is the push by Republicans in the red state to redraw the current congressional maps to reduce the number of districts controlled by already marginalized Democrats.
It's part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to keep control of the chamber, and cushion losses elsewhere in the country, as the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
And President Donald Trump is aiming to prevent what happened during his first term, when Democrats grabbed a majority in the House in the 2018 midterms.
"Texas will be the biggest one," the president told reporters last week, as he predicted the number of GOP-friendly seats that could be added through redistricting in the Lone Star State. "Just a simple redrawing, we pick up five seats."
Hours earlier, Trump held a call with Texas' Republican congressional delegation, and sources confirmed to Fox News that the president told the lawmakers that he was aiming to redraw the maps to create five new winnable seats.
Democrats control just 12 of the state's 38 congressional districts, with a blue-leaning seat vacant after the death in March of Rep. Sylvester Turner.
The idea is to relocate Democratic voters from competitive seats into nearby GOP-leaning districts, and move Republican voters into neighboring districts the Democrats currently control.
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both conservative Republicans and Trump allies, said they needed to redistrict because of constitutional concerns raised by the Justice Department over a handful of minority-dominated districts.
"Coincidentally or not, each of those seats is held by a Democrat who is either Black or Mexican-American," O'Rourke said Tuesday. "That's what they're doing. It's members of Congress choosing their own voters, literally."
Redistricting typically takes place at the start of each decade, based on the latest U.S. Census data. Mid-decade redistricting is uncommon - but not without precedent.
Democrats are slamming Trump and Texas Republicans for what they describe as a power grab, and vowing to take legal action to prevent any shift in the current congressional maps, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, "Democrats are going to push back aggressively because it's the right thing to do."
"Two can play this game," California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media last week.
The next day, after a meeting, Democrats in California's congressional delegation said they were on board with an ambitious plan to try and gain at least five seats through redistricting. Democrats currently control 43 of the Golden State's 52 congressional districts.
But it won't be easy to enact the change, because in California, congressional maps are drawn by an independent commission that is not supposed to let partisanship influence their work.
Newsom this week suggested that the state's Democratic-controlled legislature should move forward with a mid-decade redrawing of the maps, arguing that it might not be forbidden by the 17-year-old ballot initiative that created the independent commission.
The governor also proposed quickly holding a special election to repeal the commission ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Both plans are considered long shots, as they would face plenty of legislative, legal and financial hurdles.
