Trump, Republicans race to redraw Texas congressional map as Democrats threaten legal war
President Donald Trump and Republicans are moving full speed ahead in an extraordinary push to redraw congressional district maps ahead of next year's midterm elections when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin House majority And Democrats are trying to fight back against the Republicans' controversial moves Texas GOP state lawmakers will unveil their proposed new congressional redistricting maps as early as Wednesday a well-connected Republican source in the Lone Star State approved to Fox News Digital Meanwhile the top Democrat in the House is expected to excursion to Texas to meet Wednesday evening with Democrats in the state legislature at a meeting in Austin TEXAS DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS PREPARING TO FLEE RED STATE TO BLUNT GOP CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING PUSHHouse Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has accused the Republicans of being afraid of the voters in in the midterm elections and they're trying to cheat to win The Republican push in Texas is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to keep control of the House and cushion losses elsewhere in the country as the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats in midterm elections TEXAS GOV SAYS DEMS WHO FLED STATE OVER ELECTIONS BILL WILL BE ARRESTED UPON RETURNTrump and his political association are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the midterms Texas will be the biggest one the president reported reporters in recent weeks as he predicted the number of GOP-friendly seats that could be added through redistricting in the reliably red state Just a simple redrawing we pick up five seats Democrats control just of the state's congressional districts with a blue-leaning seat vacant after the death in March of Rep Sylvester Turner The GOP idea is to relocate Democratic voters from competitive seats into nearby GOP-leaning districts and move Republican voters into neighboring districts the Democrats now control Gov Greg Abbott and Lt Gov Dan Patrick both conservative Republicans and Trump allies disclosed they needed to redistrict because of constitutional concerns raised by the Justice Department over a handful of minority-dominated districts COURT SIDETRACKS REDISTRICTING FIGHT IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATEBut the move is potentially risky There is various threat of making safe Republican seats more competitive and I think that the incumbents are certainly worried about that veteran Texas-based Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser in recent times reported Fox News If you talk to Republican members of Congress they're going to be worried about their own seats They don't want to be in a seat that's more competitive Steinhauser noted that's the tradeoff for Republicans if you want to grow the majority But he added that the people drawing the maps they don't want to make any seat too competitive because that will defeat the purpose Redistricting typically takes place at the start of each decade based on the latest U S Census figures Mid-decade redistricting is uncommon but not without precedent Democrats are slamming Trump and Texas Republicans for what they describe as a power grab and vowing to take legal action to prevent any shift in the current congressional maps And Democrats in blue-dominated states are now trying to fight fire with fire Two can play this meeting California Gov Gavin Newsom wrote on social media lately The next day after a meeting Democrats in California's congressional delegation announced they were on board with an ambitious plan to try and gain at least five seats through redistricting Democrats now control of the Golden State's congressional districts Jeffries after his two-day stop in Texas heads to California for meetings with state Democrats But it won't be easy to enact the change because in California congressional maps are drawn by an independent commission that is not supposed to let partisanship influence their work Newsom has suggested that the state's Democratic-controlled legislature move forward with a mid-decade redrawing of the maps arguing that it might not be forbidden by the -year-old ballot initiative that created the independent commission The governor also proposed hastily holding a special voting to repeal the commission ahead of the midterm elections Both plans are considered long shots as they would face plenty of legislative legal and financial hurdles Democrats in other heavily populated blue states including New York Illinois and New Jersey are also considering making changes to their maps but have redistricting limits enshrined in their state constitutions Meanwhile Ohio is required by law to redistrict this year and a redrawing of the maps in the red-leaning state could provide the GOP with up to three more congressional seats And Republicans are also mulling mid-decade redistricting that might give the GOP a couple of more House seats in red states such as Florida Missouri and Indiana
