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Texas Senate Passes Political Map Rigged for Trump as Abbott Threatens Second Session
"This mid-decade redistricting isn't about fair representation—it's about politicians picking their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders," said the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus.
Aug 12, 2025
Despite a walkout by most Democrats in the Texas Senate on Tuesday, the chamber's 19 Republicans voted to approve a new congressional map that favors the GOP, which they aim to force through at President Donald Trump's request.
The gerrymandering battle has drawn national attention, as many Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives have fled the state to block the map from advancing, and Democratic governors have not only welcomed those legislators but also threatened to redraw their maps to counter the effort to hand Republicans five more congressional seats in the Lone Star State.
On Tuesday, nine Democrats walked out of the Senate, while Democratic Sens. Judith Zaffrini (21) and Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (20) stayed and voted against the redistricting legislation, S.B. 4. The Houston Chronicle reported that the pair did not respond to requests for comment, but both represent South Texas, where "Trump made major gains in the last election."
In a lengthy statement about the Legislature's current special session and Tuesday's walkout, the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus stressed that families impacted by last month's deadly flooding "cannot afford more delays."
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott "has the power to move relief funds to survivors immediately using the same emergency budget authority he's used many times—for his border wall, school safety, and even to restore the Legislature's own funding," the Democrats noted. "But now, he's tying the passage of urgently needed relief to an unconstitutional redistricting plan."
"This mid-decade redistricting isn't about fair representation—it's about politicians picking their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders," the caucus continued, warning of future efforts to rig maps for the Republican Party. "That's why we walked out—because this session should only be about flood relief, and we refuse to engage in a corrupt process."
Abbott, meanwhile, threatened to "immediately" call a second special session if the chambers wrap up early on Friday as planned.
"The special session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans," he said Tuesday. "There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them. I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed."
Texas House Democrats have made clear that they intend to continue their quorum break despite their GOP colleagues' issuing civil arrest warrants, financial penalties, and even the legally dubious involvement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the request of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who faces a primary challenge from Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton has set his sights on former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, whose political group Powered by People fundraised to support the lawmakers who left the state. They are now engaged in a legal battle, and Paxton wants a Tarrant County judge to jail and fine O'Rourke for allegedly violating an injunction granted late last week that forbade him from raising money for the Democrats who fled or spending to cover their expenses.
As The Texas Tribune reported:
On Tuesday, Paxton claimed that O'Rourke had violated that temporary injunction at a Fort Worth rally Saturday, when he told the crowd, "There are no refs in this game, fuck the rules."
According to a video of the event, O'Rourke appeared to say that phrase after urging the crowd to support retaliatory redistricting in other blue states—not in relation to the injunction.
Paxton's motion also cited social media posts by O'Rourke after the injunction came down, in which the Democrat said he was "still raising and rallying to stop the steal of five congressional seats in Texas," and included a donation link.
According to the newspaper, attorneys for O'Rourke argued in a court filing that Paxton was "knowingly taking a statement entirely out of context to intentionally misrepresent the statement," and the attorney general's motion "misrepresents" the temporary injunction, which only blocks the former congressman and his group from fundraising for "nonpolitical purposes."
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Texas AG Paxton Files 'Baseless' Lawsuit to Unseat 13 Democratic State Lawmakers
"This seat doesn't belong to him or me—it belongs to the people," one targeted legislator defiantly declared.
Aug 08, 2025
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued former Congressman Beto O'Rourke and his political action committee in what critics called a "baseless" bid to oust 13 Democratic lawmakers who left the state in an effort to thwart a GOP gerrymandering scheme.
Paxton's office claimed that O'Rourke, a Democrat, and his Powered by People PAC illegally solicited donations to cover personal expenses for Democratic state legislators who fled Texas in an effort to block a Republican plan to rig the state's congressional map at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Paxton is seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction to stop O'Rourke and Powered by People from raising or distributing funds to support the more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left Texas. The attorney general argued that 13 state legislative seats "have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences."
"Democrat runaways are likely accepting Beto Bribes to underwrite their jet-setting sideshow in far-flung places and misleadingly raising political funds to pay for personal expenses," Paxton alleged in a statement. "This out-of-state, cowardly cabal is abandoning their constitutional duties. I will not allow failed political has-beens to buy off Texas elected officials."
This, after Paxton and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) asked an Illinois court to enforce civil arrest warrants issued Monday in a bid to compel Democratic state legislators to return to Austin to vote on the legislation. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also enlisted the FBI's assistance to track down and arrest the absconding Democrats.
O'Rourke said Friday that Powered by People filed a retaliatory lawsuit accusing Paxton of using "the power of the state of Texas to try and intimidate Mr. O'Rourke from challenging defendant in a free and fair election."
"The guy impeached for bribery is going after the folks trying to stop the theft of five congressional seats," O'Rourke told KVUE. "Let's stop these thugs before they steal our country."
Targeted Democratic lawmakers also waxed defiant, backed by officials in the states to which they fled including Illinois, where Gov. JB Pritzer asserted that "there literally is no federal law applicable to this situation."
Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D-50) said on social media that "Ken Paxton just filed a lawsuit to remove me from office. But this seat doesn't belong to him or me—it belongs to the people."
Advocacy groups also denounced Paxton's lawsuit, with Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, contending that the attorney general and Texas Republicans "are so desperate to pass their partisan redistricting scheme that they're launching a baseless legal assault to unseat democratically elected lawmakers."
"It's just the latest threat against lawmakers who refuse to carry out Trump's demands and rig congressional maps to bank five new Republican congressional districts," Edkins added. "The courts shouldn't entertain this undemocratic attack for even one second."
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To 'Push' Biden on Gaza, Beto O'Rourke Latest to Back 'Uncommitted' Campaign in Michigan
"I do think it makes sense for those who want to see this administration do more, or do a better job, to exert that political pressure," said the Texas Democrat.
Feb 24, 2024
Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke became the latest high-profile member of the party to back the push for Michigan voters to tick the "uncommitted" box on the primary ballot next week as a way to protest President Joe Biden's unconditional support of Israel's unyielding assault on the people of Gaza.
"I do think it makes sense for those who want to see this administration do more, or do a better job, to exert that political pressure and get the president's attention and the attention of those on his campaign so that the United States does better," said the former congressman who has run for both president and the U.S. Senate.
In an interview with the Michigan Advance on Friday, O'Rourke explained that he was partly influenced by a recent New York Times op-ed by Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud which argued that "no amount of landmark legislation" passed by the Biden administration "can outweigh the more than 100,000 people killed, wounded, or missing in Gaza. The scales of justice will not allow it."
"Yes, let's help him, let's push him, let's apply pressure where we can, but let us in no way undermine his ability to win in November.”
O'Rourke said he agrees "with the aims and the goals" of the grassroots campaign in Michigan that is urging Democrats to use Tuesday's primary contest, in which Biden faces no real opponent, as a way to express the deep frustration many voters in the state are feeling over the carnage in Gaza.
"We should have a ceasefire, there should be a return of each [and] every single one of those hostages [taken by Hamas], there should be an end to this war and there should be a negotiated solution to Palestinian statehood," O’Rourke told the news outlet. "All of that needs to happen, and I share the concern that the United States is not doing close to enough to bring those things to pass."
Polls have shown a strong majority of Democratic voters support an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, something Biden has steadfastly refused. Jewish Americans have been among those speaking loudest over U.S. backing of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza, with groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now staging countless demonstrations in cities across the nation over the last four months. Disagreement with the administration's policy is especially high among younger voters as well as the Arab American and Muslim Americans who represent a sizeable bloc of Michigan voters.
In his op-ed, Mayor Hammoud said that like many in his community, the humanitarian disaster and death toll in Gaza has made it nearly impossible to sleep at night, but that by voting "uncommitted" on Tuesday he will not only be voicing his dissent but also expressing a kind of hope. He wrote:
The hope that Mr. Biden will listen. The hope that he and those in Democratic leadership will choose the salvation of our democracy over aiding and abetting Mr. Netanyahu’s war crimes. The hope that our families in Gaza will have food in their bellies, clean water to drink, access to health care and the internet and above all else, a just state in which they have the right to determine their own future.
The hope that, one day soon, Dearborn will be able to sleep again.
In my sleepless nights, I have often questioned what kind of America my daughters will grow up in: one that makes excuses for the killing of innocent men, women and children or one that chooses to reclaim hope. What still lies between betrayal and hope is the power of accountability. It is my prayer — as a father, the son of immigrants and as a public servant in the greatest city in the greatest nation in the world — that my fellow Michiganders will harness this power and lend their voice to this hope by holding the president accountable.
Despite his endorsement for those campaigning for "uncommitted" in Michigan, where O'Rourke was visiting over the weekend as part of a book tour, he said that he still wants Biden to win reelection.
"I support the president; I want him very badly to beat Donald Trump," he said. "I don't want to do anything that weakens his ability to do that, because for whatever legitimate concerns people have about President Biden's response to the war in Gaza, we do know for a fact that, under President Trump, it would be much worse. And so, yes, let's help him, let's push him, let's apply pressure where we can, but let us in no way undermine his ability to win in November.”
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