Chairs belonging to Home Democrats stay empty throughout a session convocation within the State Capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas.
Rodolfo Gonzalez/AP
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Rodolfo Gonzalez/AP
The combat over redistricting in Texas drags on as Democrats proceed to disclaim state Republicans a quorum for a vote.
On Sunday, Texas democrats fled the state to keep away from giving state Republicans a quorum for a particular session. They wish to keep away from voting on a brand new congressional map drawn by Republicans, which they are saying disenfranchises voters.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has known as for the arrest of those Democrats, and is asking the state Supreme Courtroom to take away Gene Wu, the chair of the state’s Democratic caucus.
In the meantime, Democrats have vowed to remain out of the state of Texas till late August — when the particular session ends.
So what’s comes subsequent on this redistricting standoff? And the way would possibly Texas Republicans transfer ahead?
State consultant Tom Oliverson, chair of the Texas Home Republican Caucus, joined All Issues Thought of host Ailsa Chang to share his ideas on the following step of this battle.
Some solutions have been edited for been flippantly edited for size and readability.
Interview Highlights
Ailsa Chang: This congressional map is being redrawn after your social gathering already drew it in 2021. And one of many major objections to what you all are doing is that Texas Republicans are doing this solely as a result of President Trump requested you to take action. So let me simply ask you instantly, is that true?
Tom Oliverson: No, we aren’t. And in reality, the primary conversations that I heard about and had myself relating to redistricting started earlier than the legislative session in January on account of the court docket case the place a federal appeals court docket principally rejected the concept of the coalition on districts as being in line with the Voting Rights Act.
Chang: That mentioned, President Trump does say that Republicans are, “entitled to 5 extra seats in Texas.” Do you agree with that, that you’re entitled to 5 extra seats?
Oliverson: I believe what I’d say is that we definitely have the fitting to take a look at the maps and make adjustments. I believe the courts have constantly held that redistricting for functions of political efficiency by both social gathering is appropriate. Different states have achieved that.
A lot has been mentioned in regards to the state of Illinois, the place lots of my Democratic colleagues have taken refuge as being basically a state that overperforms for the Democrat Get together by greater than 30 factors.
Chang: Democrats are saying that this proposed map out of your social gathering will disenfranchise Texas voters, particularly voters of coloration. What’s your response to that?
Oliverson: The state of Texas, for those who have form of been maintaining with present occasions, minorities are trending in direction of Republicans.
There’s this false sense of equivalency that I believe lots of my Democratic colleagues have created. We heard this in one of many redistricting hearings, {that a} district that was much less African-American would take a Democrat vote away. And the truth is, is that African-Individuals, in addition to Hispanics, significantly in South Texas, have trended in direction of Republicans.
Chang: Governor Abbott is telling state Democrats which have fled that he’s calling for his or her arrest. He is additionally saying that he, because the governor, has the ability to take away somebody from state workplace if they don’t return to Texas. How would that work?
Oliverson: I am not an legal professional, so I am not going to attempt to be a authorized professional and say what I believe regulation enforcement can or would do when it comes to returning people who find themselves outdoors the state to the state.
I do imagine sooner or later they must come again. And after they do come again, we’re going to cross the maps. And that is what occurred final time. You understand, lots of us lived by this in 2021. And the true drawback right here is that they run away as a result of they do not wish to vote on a invoice. They don’t have any plan and no strategic outlook on this.
So I do not even know that they must be arrested, per se. And I suppose I’d additionally level out that we’re actually at this level solely a handful of votes wanting making quorum anyway. The individual on the heart of this that you simply talked about, Governor Greg Abbott is an legal professional, a former choose, and is the previous legal professional common of our state. And he believes that there’s a mechanism, as does our present legal professional common of our state, that there’s a legitimate authorized mechanism to declare that these people have deserted their district and the seat that ought to be vacated.
Chang: In the meantime, this lack of quorum implies that there can’t be votes on issues like reduction and new warning programs after the devastating floods in Texas final month. What’s the standing of all of that enterprise? Is all of that enterprise stalled basically?
Oliverson: Properly, it’s to a sure extent. Now, committees are nonetheless having hearings. There was a listening to yesterday within the Texas Home on 5 separate items of laws that needed to do with our emergency preparedness emergency activation system.
I believe everyone is aware of that we had an amazing tragedy final month in central Texas. And our emergency response system was less than the duty, particularly not within the wee hours of the morning in areas the place mobile phone reception is traditionally very poor due to the rocky terrain.
