Texas Republicans and Governor Greg Abbott put power grab redistricting "gerrymandering" ahead of flash flood disaster response

 "Meanwhile, the real losers in this political tit-for-tat are the flood victims who will have to wait even longer for disaster recovery funds that Abbott could’ve authorized the day after the floodwaters receded." 

Editorial echo published by the Houston Chronicle editorial board:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott put redistricting over Texas flood recovery. Now he’s threatening democrac:  Editorial

"But the lives of Texans come second to the desires of Donald Trump and his cult loyalists. When Trump utters the words “very simple redrawing,” Abbott asks, how many seats do you want? And we end up with a Congressional map that puts Democrats on the endangered species list."

Gov. Greg Abbott could listen to the pleas for better flood warning alerts from Alicia Jeffrey Baker from Hunt, who had to wait nearly a week before she could identify her daughter’s body by her charm bracelet. He could listen to the demands for better debris cleanup from Ashlee Willis, a Sandy Creek resident, who found body parts from flood victims on her property. He could marshal mental health resources to help people like Keli Rabon, whose 7-year-old climbed to the rafters of his cabin at a Hunt sleep-away camp to escape the flood and now wakes up with nightmares of his mattress submerged in water.

Instead, the governor has followed his orders from Trumpzi Washington and put a Republican power grab before communities devastated by Central Texas floods. With a stroke of his pen, Abbott could have moved hundreds of millions of dollars by executive fiat. He could have called a session with the sole objective of addressing the still-unfolding crisis in the Hill Country.

But the lives of Texans come second to the desires of President Trump and his loyalists. When Trump utters the words “very simple redrawing,” Abbott asks, how many seats do you want? And we end up with a Congressional map that puts Democrats on the endangered species list.

So House Democrats played the only card left in their hand. On Sunday, they fled the state for Illinois, breaking quorum to block the Republican-led Legislature from passing a map that carves up three of Texas’ bluest cities, including the 9th Congressional District in Houston represented by Al Green.

Yes, both parties have gerrymandered Texas when they’re in power. Democrats in Illinois play the game expertly too, normally done once per decade when new census figures come out and maps are adjusted to ensure each district has roughly the same number of people.

But if the Legislature approves the proposed maps, Texas Democrats would safely hold only 21% of the state’s congressional districts. That’s a vote share on par with Wyoming — the reddest state in the nation — and looks nothing like a state where 46% of voters cast ballots for Democrat Kamala Harris a year ago.

This attempt at an extreme, mid-decade gerrymander is already triggering a race to the bottom. Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened his own moves in California, where an independent commission draws a map that prioritizes compactness and keeping communities of interest together instead of partisan advantage.

None of this would be necessary if Congress had passed the 2022 Freedom to Vote Act or some other federal prohibition on this sort of partisan gerrymandering. 

Republicans and Democrats could call a truce in this undemocratic unraveling of fair representation and ensure voters have real ability to pick their politicians — rather than the other way around.Until then, the Democrats have resorted to a tried-and-true political move designed to make Abbott’s capitulation to Trump on redistricting a national story. Democrats did it four years ago to stall Republicans’ attempts to restrict Texans’ voting rights. It’s not even the first time Texas Dems have bounced because of mid-decade redistricting. In 2003, House Democrats hopped a bus to Ardmore, Oklahoma to delay gerrymandered maps proposed by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

“We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities,” said Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and the House Democratic Caucus Chair at a press conference in Chicago. “We're not here to play political games, we're here to demand an end to this corrupt process."

It's a bold strategy, but likely a losing one. We all know how this high-stakes poker game ends. Abbott will call special session after special session until the House Democrats fold. He’ll bet that enough will grow tired of the Windy City and yearn to get back to their families.

This time, though, Abbott is upping the ante. Not only has he threatened to remove the quorum breakers from their seats, in a statement on Sunday night, the governor threatened to charge them all with felonies if they raise money to pay for their Chicago excursion.

In normal times, such preposterous threats might be waved off as bluster from a state leader who has completely lost the moral high ground and perhaps his grasp on reality. But things are a bit dicier these days with Trump back in office, effectively puppeteering Abbott from the White House. We wouldn’t put it past the president to drum up some bogus pretense for sending federal law enforcement to Chicago to collect the AWOL Dems.

Make no mistake: Removing the Democratic representatives would be an attack on democracy itself. The nation treads a precarious path — one we’re increasingly concerned our democratic republic cannot survive unharmed.

Meanwhile, the real losers in this political tit-for-tat are the flood victims who will have to wait even longer for disaster recovery funds that Abbott could’ve authorized the day after the floodwaters receded. Instead, he used flood recovery as a bargaining chip for Democrats: first, swallow a redistricting map that further plunges your party into irrelevance, and eventually we’ll toss a lifeline to Central Texas.

None of this was necessary. Abbott could’ve just made the special session all about flooding. Heck, lawmakers probably could’ve gotten a recovery package passed with plenty of time left over to sift through Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s buffet of red-meat priorities.😳😵😟 Instead, the well-being of Texans has once again come second to flagrant backroom partisan power-plays.