Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke didn’t mince phrases when speaking about Texas Republicans’ makes an attempt to create a brand new redistricting map that might disenfranchise tens of millions of non-white voters.
“These motherfuckers are panicking proper now,” O’Rourke said during an interview in New Orleans on Friday for Netroots Nation, a nonprofit group for progressive activism.
O’Rourke was referring to Republicans’ makes an attempt to arrest dozens of Home Democrat lawmakers who left the state to disclaim Home Republicans a quorum to gerrymander district strains.
Beneath the brand new proposed map, President Donald Trump would choose up 5 extra GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas forward of the 2026 midterms. The brand new map would additionally take voting power away from Latino and Black voters.
“ that Trump requested Greg Abbott, our governor, to offer him 5 congressional seats in Texas,” O’Rourke defined. “And thick as thieves, he and the Republican state legislature have been busy at work carving up the state. They have been gonna vote on these 5 new districts on Monday, however thank god for Texas Democrats. Fifty-four of them left the state, broke quorum, mentioned ‘To hell with that,’ and defied Donald Trump and stopped this energy seize within the state of Texas.”
On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) requested the FBI to assist Abbott (R) observe down and arrest Home Democrats who left the state. Abbott has additionally threatened to push for much more GOP-leaning congressional seats if Democrats proceed to dam the redistricting effort.
State Rep. Vince Perez (D-El Paso), one in all dozens of lawmakers who left the state, instructed JS the brand new redistricting would give Latino voters ― who quantity greater than 11 million within the state ― simply one-third of the political energy of a white resident.
“That is clearly a racially engineered map that I believe all Individuals can be appalled by in the event that they actually seemed on the particulars of this,” Perez mentioned.
Together with threats of arrest, lawmakers have additionally confronted threats of violence. Earlier this week, a gaggle of Texas lawmakers was pressured to evacuate their resort in Chicago over a bomb risk.
O’Rourke has additionally been within the crosshairs of Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton, who mentioned Friday he’s suing O’Rourke for utilizing his political group, Powered by Individuals, to boost cash to cowl prices for Democrats who’ve left the state.
O’Rourke mentioned it’s time for Democrats to struggle again.
“They’re betting that our aspect goes to offer in and quit, that we’re the previous Democratic get together that was extra fascinated by concession and compromise,” O’Rourke mentioned Friday.
He accused “older Democratic leaders” of “bending the knee and submitting to those guys.”
“Relatively than saying ‘To hell with that, we’re going to struggle you tooth and nail,’” O’Rourke mentioned. “No matter it takes to ensure that we’re ruthlessly centered on stopping [Republicans’] energy seize and ensuring we win energy ourselves.
“We’re not going to let Ken Paxton frighten us, intimidate us,” he added. “The nation desires to see a struggle.”
