Texas governor promises to keep redistricting fight going for years
The fight over Texas’s congressional map “could literally last years,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday, while defending his call to arrest Texas Democrats who fled the state to stall the GOP’s redistricting efforts.
Texas Democrats are preventing the Texas House from achieving the quorum necessary to move ahead with legislative business in the state legislature. They are trying to run out the clock on Republicans’ special legislative session and draw attention to their cause, even as they are unlikely to stop the redraw — because Abbott can keep calling more special sessions.
Speaking to “Fox News Sunday,” Abbott threatened to do so — repeatedly — until the GOP gets its way.
“I’m authorized to call a special session every 30 days,” Abbott said. “As soon as this one is over, I’m gonna call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one.”
Democratic state lawmakers left for Illinois and other blue states, and they’ve said they are determined to stay away. Republican officials in Texas are ramping up the pressure on them to return. On Sunday, Abbott said that the Texas Democrats, if and when they return to the state, will be arrested and taken to the Capitol.
“If they want to evade that arrest, they’re gonna have to stay outside of the state of Texas for literally years, and they might as well just start voting in California or voting in Illinois, wherever they may be,” Abbott said.
Republicans’ move to redraw U.S. House maps in Texas to benefit their party has set off a nationwide battle over redistricting. President Donald Trump and his allies are pushing to carve out new red districts around the country ahead of the 2026 midterms, even though redistricting typically would not take place until the next census. Democrats have vowed to respond in kind with gerrymandering efforts in blue states, though their options are limited.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), also speaking to “Fox News Sunday,” said Republicans’ efforts, to her, are a sign of desperation because “they know they’re going to lose next year.”
Hochul called Abbott a “lapdog” for Trump, and vowed to ensure that New York strikes back by redrawing districts that secure Democrats more House seats.
Unlike Texas, where the state government can vote on redistricted maps off-schedule, New York requires a constitutional amendment. Hochul said she will let New Yorkers vote on an effort to amend the state constitution to allow for a new, redistricted map that would give Democrats more seats in response to Texas’s efforts.
Speaking to CNN, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said Democratic governors have no choice but to fight back.
“What we have now is a terrible situation and Republicans are making it worse,” Sanders said. “Republicans are doing it, [we] have to respond. It’s pathetic, but you have to respond.”
But GOP leaders on Sunday argued that Democrats in blue states seeking to redraw their districts will find it difficult to gerrymander any more Republicans out of their maps.
“They are bringing a gun to a gunfight, but they have no bullets because they lost their bullets when they engaged in redistricting and gerrymandering over the past decade,” Abbott said of Democrats.
Speaking to Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vice President JD Vance defended his party’s actions, arguing that Republicans are “just trying to rebalance the scales.”
“The democratic system in this country is broken, because who you vote for doesn’t necessarily get reflected in who your representatives are,” he argued.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers have continued issuing civil arrest warrants for the absent Democratic lawmakers. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked an Illinois court to enforce the warrants beyond Texas lines. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday that the FBI had granted his request that the agency help Texas authorities track down the Democratic lawmakers. The FBI declined to comment and it is not clear what, if any, specific plans the agency has to get involved.
On Friday, Paxton also sued to bar former Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke and a group run by him, Powered by People, from funding the Texas Democratic legislators who have left the state.
Speaking to NBC News on Sunday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), who has met with the Texas Democrats staying in his state over the past week, dismissed Republican threats as “grandstanding,” noting that there is no federal law that would allow the FBI to arrest the Texas Democrats, whom he described as “heroes.”
“What Greg Abbott is doing and what Donald Trump is attempting to do is to cheat mid-decade here,” Pritzker said. “They know that they’re going to lose in 2026 the Congress, and so they’re trying to steal seats.”