Texas Republicans propose new US House map with more winnable GOP seats
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The new seats come from making two Rio Grande Valley seats that have been narrowly won by Democrats recently slightly more Republican, collapsing two seats held by Democrats Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar in the Austin and San Antonio area into a single liberal district and turning two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones.
Rep. Greg Casar, one of the Democrats who could face a more difficult reelection under the new map, called the proposed changes 'illegal voter suppression,' pointing to the merging of his district with another Democratic-held seat.
'Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map,' Casar said in a statement.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What a weaker dollar means for inflation
The US dollar ( has fallen this year, and that can have big implications for inflation. RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas talks about that connection and when the impact of tariffs may start to show in the US economy. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime. turning out to the dollar index, it's seen many swings we know amid economic uncertainty. Joe, you highlight what the moves in the currency mean for inflation? Walk us through that. All right. When you get a sustained 10% decline in the value of the dollar, typically, you should expect to see a 1/2 of 1% increase in inflation over the next 6 to 12 months. We clearly are at that point, even though we had a nice rebound. I think it was 3.3% for the month of July, strongest month for the greenback this year, but nevertheless, the policy mix out of the administration, all points towards a weaker dollar, and I think that's what we're going to get. Moreover, when you take a look at import prices, especially import prices ex petroleum, it tells the tale. We're going to see more inflation and a weaker dollar going forward. Does Trump want a strong dollar? I would think he does, and I think, well, I think like all politicians, he wants to have his cake and eat it, too. He doesn't want de-dollarization, clearly, but he wants a weaker dollar because A, it really tends to juice the tech sector, and B, it will provide relief to the beleaguered manufacturing sector that's been in an effective recession for the past couple of years. Is it too soon to say the kind of impact the softer dollars had during this earnings season, particularly what it's meant for the multinationals? It's way too early to jump on that bandwagon. I think we're really going to be talking in the fourth quarter earnings, and then next year. Moreover, a lot of those firms that he wants to help are actually having real problems with the tariff issue because, you know, 45% of everything we import goes into domestic manufacturing. So policies at a cross purposes, a good portion of the time this year, which is why that economy slowed to 1.2% growth in the first half of the year, and we think it's not going to do much better. Our forecast for this year is 1.1%. Can I ask you when we talk about these tariff policies? We've been talking about them all show. There's the near to intermediate impact, but how long do we have to wait to see what the long-term impact is? Meaning, do I have to wait till does it have to be August 2026, and Joe and Josh are back on set for me to really know, okay, it's really boosted manufacturing job. It's really opened up all these new markets for American business. It's really raised this much revenue. It's a little worse, actually. So as of midnight last night, on once we get to October 5th, we're going to have an effective 18.3% tariff. The real problem is we won't really understand what any of this means, not till October 5th, 2026, but more like October 5th, 2027. Why? Why do you say that, Joe? Because it takes so long to pass through the tariff costs. You know, there are four points along the chain. You've got your retail, you've got your consumers, you've got your importers, and you've got your exporters. At each point of the supply chain, you're going to see a bit of it absorbed, a bit of it eaten. When we went through this in 2018, for example, we didn't see the full price of the increase in the price of washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers caused by tariffs show up on consumers' balance sheets until about two years later. Turned out 90% of that cost was eaten entirely by consumers. 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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Texas is redrawing congressional map for GOP gains, House Republicans acknowledge
Texas legislators are redrawing the state's congressional map to advantage Republican candidates, GOP lawmakers said at a state House hearing Friday, setting aside a legal justification offered by the U.S. Department of Justice and making their political motivations explicit for the first time. 'Different from everyone else, I'm telling you, I'm not beating around the bush,' Rep. Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican carrying the bill, said about the goal of the map. 'We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.' Texas Republicans launched the redistricting effort after pressure from President Donald Trump's political operatives, who demanded state leaders redraw the map to help Republicans maintain their slim House majority ahead of a potentially difficult midterm election. The House redistricting committee released its proposed redo of the map Wednesday. It slices up districts in the Houston, Austin and the Dallas areas, yielding five additional districts that would have voted for Trump by at least 10 percentage points in 2024. In 2024, Trump won 56.2% of votes in Texas. Under the current lines, Republicans hold 66% of Texas' 38 House seats. The new map aims to push that share to 79%. 'Political performance does not guarantee electoral success — that's up to the candidates,' Hunter said. 'But it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts.' Gov. Greg Abbott, in adding redistricting to the special session agenda, cited a letter from the Justice Department claiming that four Texas districts were unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. But on Friday, state Republicans were unequivocal that their goal was not to fix racial gerrymandering — which several have testified under oath does not exist in the current map — but to give the GOP the greatest chance of controlling as many as 30 congressional districts. 'These districts were drawn primarily using political performance,' Hunter said, citing Republican gains made across the state since the Legislature last redistricted in 2021, especially among Latino voters. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that states can draw electoral maps on partisan grounds. But under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the map cannot diminish the voting power of people of color. At Friday's hearing, Democrats argued that the proposed map unconstitutionally packed voters of color into some districts while spreading them throughout others to reduce their ability to elect their preferred candidates. 'Every citizen should have equal access to choose their representation, instead of crowding Black people to the point that all the Black people in the state only have two representatives, and all the Latinos in the state are crowded up to the extent that their voting power is diminished,' U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas told state lawmakers during the hearing. Though people of color make up most of Texas and have driven almost all of the state's population growth in recent years, the new map creates 24 districts that are majority-white — two more than the current map, which is under trial for possibly violating the Voting Rights Act. Republicans rejected the idea that the proposed map would suppress voters of color, noting that it would create one new majority Hispanic district and two new majority Black districts. But all three are almost precisely 50% Black or Hispanic, which Democratic lawmakers said at the hearing is not enough to ensure they're able to elect their candidates of choice. U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, whose seat would be partially dismantled under the new lines, noted that his district was drawn by a federal court 'to ensure that communities of color, Black and brown Texans, could finally have a voice in Congress.' 'Now, that voice is again under threat,' he said. 'This is a map that was drawn behind closed doors — as we've heard here today — to dismantle representation and weaken our power in turn.' It could take months, if not years, to resolve any legal challenge against the proposed map. A lawsuit against Texas' current maps, passed in 2021, finally went to trial last month, almost four years and several election cycles after they went into effect. In the meantime, Republicans in the Legislature have the votes to pass the map as it's drafted. Chairman Cody Vasut, an Angleton Republican, said the committee, which has 12 Republicans and nine Democrats, will vote to advance the map Friday evening or Saturday. It could be on the House floor as soon as Tuesday, he said. Democrats, locked out of power in the statehouse, have few tools at their disposal to fight the map's passage. The nuclear option is to flee the state and deny Republicans a quorum to pass any legislation — an expensive and politically tenuous move that state House Democrats were still considering ahead of the full chamber vote. At Friday's hearing, the only time the public would have to comment on the House's proposed map, Democrats begged Republicans to slow or stop redistricting entirely. 'This is not a Texas map. It is a Trump map,' said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat. 'It was imposed by President Trump, who has a stranglehold on Congress, and the only question here is whether he also has a stranglehold on this Texas Legislature.' The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
New York Post
20 minutes ago
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Dems' grim outlook for '26, ‘Palestine' is a made-up cause and other commentary
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