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 may disenfranchise tens of millions of non-white voters.
“These motherfuckers are panicking proper now,” O’Rourke mentioned throughout 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 traces.
Underneath the brand new proposed map, President Donald Trump would decide up 5 extra GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas forward of the 2026 midterms. The brand new map would additionally take voting energy away from Latino and Black voters.
“You understand that Trump requested Greg Abbott, our governor, to provide 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 among dozens of lawmakers who left the state, advised JHB 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 feel all Individuals can be appalled by in the event that they actually regarded on the particulars of this,” Perez mentioned.
Together with threats of arrest, lawmakers have additionally confronted threats of violence. Earlier this week, a bunch of Texas lawmakers was compelled to evacuate their resort in Chicago over a bomb menace.
O’Rourke has additionally been within the crosshairs of Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton, who mentioned Friday he’s suing O’Rourke for utilizing his political group, Powered by Folks, to boost cash to cowl prices for Democrats who’ve left the state.
O’Rourke mentioned it’s time for Democrats to combat again.
“They’re betting that our facet goes to provide in and quit, that we’re the previous Democratic social gathering that was extra curious about concession and compromise,” O’Rourke mentioned Friday.
He accused “older Democratic leaders” of “bending the knee and submitting to those guys.”
“Quite than saying ‘To hell with that, we’re going to combat you tooth and nail,’” O’Rourke mentioned. “No matter it takes to make it possible for we’re ruthlessly targeted 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 combat.”