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The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Illinois governor says Texas Democrats who fled will be protected amid arrest threats
Illinois governor JB Pritzker has vowed to protect the Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives who left the state in an attempt to block Republican efforts to redraw Texas's congressional maps. 'We're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that – 'cause we know they're doing the right thing, we know that they're following the law,' Pritzker said at a press conference on Sunday in Illinois alongside some of the the Texas Democratic lawmakers. The Texas Democrats fled the state on Sunday in an effort to prevent the Texas House from reaching the quorum on Monday needed to vote on a newly proposed congressional map. In response to the Democrats' actions, Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, threatened to expel the Texas Democrats from the state House if they do not return by Monday at 3pm CT – when the Legislature is set to resume. Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican attorney general, also condemned their actions on Sunday and threatened their arrest. 'Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,' he said in a statement. 'We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.' But Pritzker, who said he will support the Texas Democrats, described their actions as 'a righteous act of courage', saying that they 'were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents'. Pritzker, a billionaire and potential 2028 presidential candidate, is reportedly helping the Democrats find lodging and meeting spaces, but is not assisting with the $500-a-day fine that each lawmaker will have to pay under new rules the House adopted in 2021, according to the Texas Tribune. The outlet reported that the Democrats have been fundraising from large Democratic donors to help pay that fine. The redistricting plan, unveiled last week by Texas Republicans, could allow Republicans to gain as many as five additional US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas's 38 seats, and in the overall House of Representatives, Republicans hold a small majority of 220-212. The proposal came after pressure from Donald Trump, who urged Texas Republicans to redraw the maps. 'There could be some other states we're going to get another three, or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one,' Trump told reporters in mid-July. 'Just a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats.' Abbott called a special session this summer and included on the agenda the redrawing of Texas's maps in addition to proposals to aid victims of the 4 July Texas flooding and other matters. Many of Texas's 62 House Democrats have fled to Illinois, with others attending the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston this week and others meeting with the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, in Albany. 'We're leaving Texas to fight for Texans,' Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair who fled to Illinois, said in a statement on Sunday. 'We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent' he added. During the news conference in Illinois on Sunday, Pritzker criticized the redistricting proposal, saying it would 'steal five congressional seats, silencing millions of voices, especially Black and Latino voters'. 'Let's be clear, this is not just rigging the system in Texas, it's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,' he added.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Drama in Texas explodes as Gov. Greg Abbott threatens Democrats throwing 'tantrum' over Trump-backed plan
Greg Abbott is now threatening to remove Democrats who are pulling wild antics in an attempt to stop redistricting legislation that favors Republicans. Over 50 Democratic state lawmakers fled the state over the weekend to avoid voting on a controversial Donald Trump-backed piece of legislation that could help Republicans get more power in Congress. The bill would redraw the state's congressional maps and eliminate five U.S. House seats presently held by Democrats. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott promised to 'remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House' for 'abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business.' Democrats planned to stall a vote on the legislation by the full chamber by not showing up, a procedure also known as 'breaking quorum.' A quorum of 100 members are needed to conduct business in the Texas House of Representatives, but with a majority of Democrats fleeing the state, no work can get done. An estimated 57 Democrats left for Illinois over the weekend, according to Caucus Chair Gene Wu. Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker promised to protect the Texas Democrats in his state from arrest because 'they're following the law.' Rouge lawmakers could be fined $500 a day if they refuse to come to work, per a rule adopted in 2021 after Texas Democrats pulled a similar move to postpone another voting bill. Abbott says his threat to remove the Democrats from their offices is rooted in Texas law. According to a legal review by the state's attorney general, a legislator can be determined to have 'vacated office' if they intentionally break quorum. Abbott also added that a district court 'may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.' Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham called the Democratic mass exodus a 'tantrum.' And other pundits were quick to slam the 'embarrassing' stunt by Democrats that swept headlines over the weekend. The redistricting push in Texas was originally spurred by a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice sent to state officials in July, which argued that four of the state's congressional districts were 'racially gerrymandered.' Democrats won all four of these seats in the 2024 elections. As a result, Trump then urged Texas Republicans to rethink their congressional maps to give Republicans a leg up in next year's midterm elections. After a hearing was held Friday on the proposed new maps, the Republicans on the Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting voted to advance on a party-line vote. Texas Rep. Todd Hunter, the Republican author of the bill pushing the new maps, described the new proposed carveouts in the following way: 'It is important to note that four of the five new districts are majority minority, Hispanic. … Each of these newly drawn districts now trends Republican,' Hunter said. 'Political performance doesn't guarantee electoral success; that's up to the candidates. But it does allow Republican candidates the opportunity to compete in these districts.' Firebrand Democrat Jasmine Crockett faces being booted from Congress after Republicans proposed a heavily gerrymandered redistricting map that would mean she no longer lives in her district. Crockett has made headlines numerous times in recent months as a key critic of the Trump administration, and the redistricting issue is the latest one she has spoken out on. She has slammed the Texas redistricting maps as a sham that silences minority voices and keeps power in the hands of the few, diluting the voting power of Latino and Black communities. Crockett called Trump 'Temu Hitler' in a recent interview with SiriusXM host Zerlina Maxwell, due to the president's involvement in the redistricting process. 'So what we have seen is, again, this rogue Department of Justice going out to do the bidding of this Temu Hitler,' Crockett told Maxwell in July. Crockett also added that in her view, Trump believes that the only way to 'ensure that [he] will have no checks on [him] is if [he] can ensure that those voices of color do not have representation.' The Texas congressional maps were already redrawn after the 2020 Census, and they are typically edited every ten years.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Moderate Democrats now changing tune on Israel over starvation of Gaza: ‘Moral obligation'
Moderate Democrats who have staunchly backed Israel have begun to question Benjamin Netanyahu's actions in Gaza as images come out of the region showing children starving, Politico reported. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) has been one of the most vocal defenders of Israel during his time in Congress, quitting the Congressional Progressive Caucus partially because of it. But he's begun to question Netanyahu's Gaza response two years on from the Oct. 7 Hamas terror strike on Israel. 'All parties, including the U.S. and Israel, have a moral obligation to do everything in our power to ease the hardship and hunger that's taken hold in the Gaza Strip,' Torres told Politico last week. The New York Democrat's tone represents a larger shift. Last week, a handful of moderate Democrats joined Sen. Bernie Sanders' motions to restrict weapons sales to Israel. Along with more progressive members like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), moderates like Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) joined the motions. In the end, a majority of Democrats supported both resolutions, with three Democrats not voting on them. 'The facts on the ground are that militarily, they have significant tactical advantages and are sufficient enough to be able to effectively deliver food. So the question arises, why can't you get food in there and health care services and basically follow humanitarian laws,' Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told Politico. Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, had previously opposed similar motions to restrict arms sales to Israel by Sanders. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who is Jewish, also excoriated Israel. Specifically, he criticized the use of the US-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, to handle distribution of food. 'They kicked out all the organizations that know how to do this, they stood up a new organization that's never done this before, that's mostly comprised of military contractors, and it is flatly failing, and people are dying' Schatz told The Independent last week. Multiple people have been killed at aid distribution sites, either by being trampled, stabbed or shot at. The Israeli military says that it only fires warning shots and GHF says it only uses pepper spray or fires warning shots to prevent crowding. At the same time, moderate Democrats like Torres want to keep attention to the hostages who remain in Gaza after Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7, 2023 that led to them killing 1,200 people and taking 251 people captive. Some of the hostages have already died in captivity. 'The world's silence about the deliberate starvation of Israeli hostages—at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — is as deafening as its hypocrisy,' Torres said on X. Pro-Israel Democratic consultants and donors also seemed to give Torres a pass and not say he was being a hypocrite for his actions. 'It's precisely because Congressman Torres has been so proactive about calling out antisemitism that masquerades as antizionism that when he has constructive advice about Israel it's listened to in a way that a statement from the member of congress who reps an adjacent district isn't,' Stu Loeser, a New York-based consultant who worked for former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, told Politico. Loeser's words were a dig at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the outspoken democratic socialist who has called Israel's war against Gaza a 'genocide.' Some former Biden administration officials have said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's execution of the war have driven the shift among Democrats. 'Yes, the political incentives for Democrats are shifting, but even more powerful for many Democrats is the recognition that a blank check approach to Israel, especially with this Israeli government, is fundamentally in contravention to our interests and values,' Ned Price, who served as a spokesman for the State Department during the Biden administration, told Politico. Another reason for the split: Democratic voters are breaking with Israel. A Gallup poll released last week showed that only 32 percent of Americans back Israel's actions in Gaza and only 8 percent of Democrats do.
