Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke has called on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance against GOP gerrymandering in the ongoing redistricting battle in Texas. O’Rourke urged the party to be willing to ‘fight fire with fire’ in response to the Republicans’ attempts to redraw congressional districts in a way that favors their party.
On the ‘Joy Reid Show’ podcast, O’Rourke highlighted the importance of stopping the current process, which he described as a mechanism for members of Congress to choose their voters. ‘That’s going to make this even worse unless we stop it,’ he said. ‘And so my hope is – and I hear this from everyone, everywhere – that Democrats fight back with everything they have. Fight fire with fire. So, if that means the Texas state house Democrats need to leave the state to deny their Republican colleagues a quorum, so be it.’
Similar actions have seen several Democratic lawmakers leave Texas over the weekend to try and block the vote, according to reports. The lawmakers reportedly participated in a Sunday press conference with Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. A minimum of 100 members of the 150-member Texas House must be present to do business. The GOP’s proposed map, which could add five new Republican seats, is likely to change before approval by both state legislative chambers. The proposal aims to redraw district lines to include more Republican-leaning areas in Democratic regions like Dallas and Houston.
O’Rourke also praised California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom for his plans to redraw lines in the state to benefit Democrats. ‘If Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to follow through on his threat to redistrict in California to give Democrats more advantage there, I know no one likes this, but we’ve got to win power until we can change it,’ Newsom said. ‘And if we don’t do everything we can, we’ll not get that power.’
He added, ‘And then the third thing is, if they do succeed in redrawing these districts, Democrats have to be ready to compete in and win them, not just the five newly created districts, if that’s what they end up doing, but Republican districts that before were considered to be safe, that will have to lose some Republican voters to these newly gerrymandered districts.’