Yesterday, more than 50 Texas House Democrats left the state to block Texas House Republicans’ gerrymandered map. Texas lawmakers returned to the legislature on July 21st, with flood relief at the top of their legislative priorities. But since then, they've held one single hearing on flood relief. Instead, they rammed through a heavily gerrymandered map personally demanded by Trump, with the express goal of creating five new Republican seats so his party won’t get wiped out in next year’s midterms. The map guts the voting power of Black and Latino Texans and entrenches Republicans’ rule even more. Redrawing maps usually only happens at the beginning of the decade after the Census is conducted – but when Trump says jump, Texas Republicans say how high. As long as Texas Democrats remain out of the state, the Texas House cannot conduct any business, including voting on Trump’s map. Let’s be clear: they aren’t running away from anything. They’re fighting, with every tool at their disposal, to save our democracy. And their courage is rattling Republicans: Governor Greg Abbott says he will attempt to remove them from office if they don’t return today and threatened them with felony charges. Kudos to Texas Democrats for taking this stand. We must all support them however we can in their battle against Trump’s authoritarianism. Their courage is a potent reminder that tyranny is only possible if we submit to it.
Fight!
We need to fight first. Everything we do is a reaction to Republican overreach.
They have already gerrymandered. They have already stolen SCOTUS judges.
#GoodTrouble
