AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In the Texas legislature today, Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows had a warning for missing Democrats.
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DUSTIN BURROWS: I will immediately sign the warrants for the civil arrests of the members who have said they will not be here. As speaker, I will do everything in my power to establish quorum and move this body forward.
CHANG: Burrows and the Republicans are trying to redraw the state's congressional districts to favor the GOP in the 2026 midterm elections. President Trump is pushing for the move to maintain the Republican majority in Congress. But many Democratic lawmakers have fled the state in a long-shot attempt to block the vote by depriving the House of a quorum. Houston Public Media's Andrew Schneider joins us now. Hi, Andrew.
ANDREW SCHNEIDER, BYLINE: Hello.
CHANG: Hello. OK, so first just remind us, what are the Republican lawmakers trying to do here that Democrats want very much to avoid?
SCHNEIDER: President Trump told Texas Republican lawmakers he wants to pick up five seats for the GOP. That would be through redistricting, which means redrawing the lines so some voters are moved from one district into another. Last Wednesday, Republican state lawmakers unveiled their proposed map, which would pack Democrats into a few seats and make others more winnable for Republicans. Now, these redistricting efforts are usually done at the beginning of the decade after the census, but Texas Republicans see an opportunity here to help their fellow Republicans in Congress keep their majority in the 2026 midterm elections.
CHANG: Right. OK, so tell us more about how the Democrats in the House have responded so far.
SCHNEIDER: They say it's an openly discriminatory gerrymander aimed at rigging the congressional map already heavily slanted towards Republicans and at disenfranchising non-white Texans. They say the state should focus on disaster preparedness after the July 4 floods that killed over 130 people. Democratic State Representative James Talarico of Austin made the point with an analogy.
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JAMES TALARICO: This is like two football teams coming out of the locker room at halftime, and the team that's ahead says they want to change the rules for the second half because they want to win the game. I mean, we all recognize that as cheating, plain and simple. And if the Republicans are going to cheat, Texas Democrats are not going to play.
SCHNEIDER: Now, the Democrats are vowing to stay out of the state until the end of this special session and potentially beyond if Governor Abbott calls another special session. Some have been speaking from Albany, New York, and Boston today. In New York, they said they're going to other places, but aren't saying where in case the Texas governor tries to track them down.
CHANG: Exactly. The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, I mean, he's saying he could remove them from office. And now some people are talking about issuing warrants for their civil arrest. Is that right?
SCHNEIDER: That's right. Now, let's note that Democrats have tried to do this over the years to stop the Republican majority from doing things and have failed. They just haven't had the numbers. But this afternoon, Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the Democratic lawmakers who'd fled the state. He's also threatening to have them expelled from their elected offices and appoint their replacements himself. It's not clear how that would work, but it will probably end up in court.
Republicans aren't hiding that they're doing this to pick up seats, but they say it's been done before. Here's Texas Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne in a TV interview with Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA.
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BETH VAN DUYNE: Democrats, whenever you have an opportunity to do this, you do. So what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Look at what they did in Illinois. Every opportunity they had to be able to flip a red district blue, they did.
SCHNEIDER: We should note, some Democratic states have gerrymandered, but many others also have commissions that take the redistricting out of the direct control of the politicians.
CHANG: That's true. Meanwhile, we should mention that all of this is setting off a redistricting arms race across the country. What else are you seeing beyond Texas?
SCHNEIDER: Well, Governor Gavin Newsom in California is threatening to do it. They have districts drawn by an independent commission that drew them with a lot of competitive districts around the state. California could make a lot more heavily Democratic districts, but it might take a public referendum on the Constitution there. There's barely time for that. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have also raised the possibility. Although in New York's case, that wouldn't come soon enough to offset any of Texas' moves for the 2026 midterms. This could go on for weeks or months.
CHANG: That is Andrew Schneider of Houston Public Media. Thank you, Andrew.
SCHNEIDER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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