State senator announces bid for head of Democratic Party of Georgia
Now, with the state chapter of the Democratic Party announcing their election schedule for a new party head, a state senator from Gwinnett County is throwing her name in the running.
Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes announced her candidacy for chair of the DPG on Friday morning.
'This election cycle is absolutely critical for Georgians – and we need to do everything we can to elect Democrats who will fight for working families and the middle class up and down the ballot, including re-electing Jon Ossoff to the Senate. We won in 2020 and 2022 by energizing our base while also appealing to new voters, and we can do it again,' Islam Parkes said in a statement.
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She closed off her announcement by saying she's 'not afraid of a tough fight,' when it comes to close elections, referring to the current political state of affairs in Georgia and Washington.
Ahead of the party election in May, the DPG will hold several in-person, regional candidate forums. Dates for the forums have yet to be announced but a schedule is expected sometime next week.
DPG elections are expected to be held on May 3 in Atlanta.
A unity fundraiser will be held in mid-May, according to a statement from Democratic Party of Georgia Interim Chair Matthew Wilson.
'Georgia Democrats are laser-focused on holding Republicans accountable at the ballot box this year and next for all the harm they've caused hardworking Georgia families,' Wilson said. 'We're wasting no time filling these vacancies because the stakes couldn't be higher, and every Georgian sick and tired of being sick and tired will be working together to defeat Republicans in 2026.'
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Boston Globe
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Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
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San Francisco Chronicle
5 minutes ago
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Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
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The new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state's 38 seats. A vote on the proposed maps had been set for Monday in the Texas House of Representatives, but it cannot proceed if the majority of Democratic members deny a quorum by not showing up. After one group of Democrats landed in Chicago on Sunday, they were welcomed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, but declined to say how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas. 'We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don't know,' said state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader. But legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021 when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans still wound up passing that measure. Four years later, Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he will seek to remove them from office if they are not back when the House reconvenes Monday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office. He also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they'd face. 'This truancy ends now,' Abbott said. In response, House Democrats issued a four-word statement: 'Come and take it.' The state of the vote Lawmakers can't pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still meet as planned on Monday afternoon. 'If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . .,' he posted on X. Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who 'try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.' Fines for not showing up A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to 'physically compel the attendance' of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don't show up for work as punishment. The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in the wake of last month's catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so. Illinois hosts Texas lawmakers Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump's most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum. Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state. Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations. '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,' Pritzker said Sunday night. Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Texas Democrats flee state over GOP-drawn House maps
Texas Governor Greg Abbott listens as President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order to begin the process of dismantling the Department of Education at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 20, 2025. On Sunday, Democrats fled the state to prevent the Republicans from advancing controversial GOP-drawn congressional maps. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Texas Democrats have fled the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing state House maps that not only advantage the GOP by five seats but that critics say target the voting power of people of color. The local Democrats traveled to Illinois and other Democratic-led states to prevent a Republican quorum -- meaning the minimum number of congressional members needed for a vote -- from being reached to advance the controversial maps on Monday when the House reconvenes at 3 p.m. local time. The Republicans hold a nearly 60% majority in the Texas House with 88 representatives to the Democrats' 62. With Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker behind him, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu told reporters at a press conference that they were armed with the moral responsibility to leave the state. "We're not here to have fun. We're not here because it is easy, and we did not make the decision to come here today lightly," he said. "But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is the absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas." The Republicans released their proposed Texas congressional map late last month that, if adopted, would add five new Republican congressional seats. The bill, House Bill 4, has since been hastily moved through the state's Congress, with the redistricting committee passing it to the House floor on Saturday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has rebuked the GOP maps as "designed to dilute the voting power of communities of color." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Saturday warned the Democrats against breaking quorum, issuing a letter stating by not being present when the House reconvenes for the special session, they could be removed from office and face felony charges, on allegations of them accepting funds to assist in their violation of legislative duties. Abbott did not provide proof to support the allegations. "Real Texans do not run from a fight," he said in the letter. "But that's exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also took to X to say that the Democrats "should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately. "We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law," he said. During the Sunday press conference, Wu lambasted Abbott for using the people of Texas as hostages "in a political game" as the Republicans were seeking to pass the congressional maps before filing a promised bill to aid those suffering from last month's flooding that killed more than 135 people. "Instead, they spent their entire time playing dirty political games that only help themselves," he said. "And what is even worse -- their attempts to do this, their attempts to disenfranchise Texans, the tool their using is a racist, gerrymandered map, a map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hardworking communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices." The Democratic National Committee has voiced support for the Texas Democrats, issuing a statement saying it was "time to fight back" against Republicans, including President Donald Trump who "have tried to get away with rigging the system, breaking the rules and scheming to hold onto power." "For weeks, we've been warning that if Republicans in Texas want a showdown -- if they want to delay flood relief to cravenly protect Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown -- then we'd give them that showdown," DNC Chair Ken Martin said. "Republicans thought they could just rig the maps and change the rules without the American people taking notice. They were dead wrong."
