Texas Democrats Seek Allies in Redistricting Fight

More than a dozen Texas House Democrats are meeting Friday with the governors of California and Illinois, who have signaled interest in redrawing their states’ congressional maps to counter Texas Republicans’ redistricting push.

Two separate delegations will travel to Sacramento and Chicago for the day to meet with Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, according to the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

The group includes caucus chair Gene Wu of Houston and state Reps. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins of San Antonio and Ramón Romero, Jr. of Fort Worth, who lead the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, respectively.

In a statement, the caucus said the 15 members are going to discuss the effects of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and his request that Texas lawmakers draw more GOP-leaning congressional districts in the state, which they say distracts from a response to the catastrophic July 4 floods. The move is not a walk-out meant to halt the legislative process, as Democrats have done in the past and are weighing now as an option to fight redistricting.

READ MORE: Texas Republicans set public hearings on redistricting in Austin, Houston and Arlington

“Since Governor Abbott is acting like a child, we are going to find adults to go talk to,” Wu said in a statement. “We’re headed out to states already dealing with the fallout from the billions of dollars that Trump's allies have crammed down our throats.”

Trump has said he hopes Texas lawmakers redraw the state's maps to help Republicans win five more congressional seats in the 2026 midterms as they seek to maintain control in the U.S. House, where they hold a narrow 219-212 majority. Lawmakers began hearings on the effort this week in the 30-day special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Newsom has already said he's open to redrawing California’s maps as a counterweight to the Texas effort, though in order to do it the state would likely need a statewide vote to scrap its independent commission.

"If these guys are literally going to rig, de facto, the outcome of November next year, I can't just sit back passively," Newsom said recently on his podcast.

Pritzker, a Democrat, has also blasted the Texas effort as “cheating” and left the door open to pushing for new maps in Illinois.

“We’re all going to have to band together to try to address that; at least to try to stop them by letting them know that if we were doing what they were doing, in fact we would counterbalance and indeed take control of the Congress,” Pritzker said on Wednesday.

Romero, who is traveling to California, praised Newsom as a leader in starting the redistricting conversation among national Democrats and said he believed Republicans are trying to bury their redistricting efforts under a slew of other issues.

“We need to sound an alarm to as many people as possible that this is a national fight that has to be taken on by everyone,” Romero said. “We need to fight fire with fire.”

But experts say Democrats may not be able to make up ground, especially because many blue states have empowered independent commissions to draw their maps.

“It's very hard, and Democrats don't control that many seats where they have sole map-drawing power,” said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, adding that many blue-leaning states already have a majority or near-majority. “So there's not a lot more blood in the turnip that Democrats can get.”

Meanwhile, Trump has teased that he hopes to see new maps in other red states. The White House has encouraged Missouri lawmakers to redraw their lines, and new maps have also been discussed in Ohio.

In Texas, Democrats have not solidified a strategy to fight the Republicans’ redistricting efforts.

Some have urged party members to organize a mass walk-out that would grind work at the Legislature to a halt by depriving the House or Senate of a quorum. That would take at least 50 of the House’s 62 Democrats and 11 in the Senate.

Several Democrats have already publicly expressed their willingness to leave the state, including state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, who is not among the group traveling Friday. On Thursday at a “Fight the Trump Takeover” rally at the Texas Capitol, she referenced Democrats’ 2021 quorum break over a massive election law overhaul bill and said Democrats won important compromises out of that decision.

“Texans, it's time to fight again. The future of America is on our shoulders. No pressure," the Austin Democrat said.

And last week, state Rep. Ron Reynolds, of Missouri City, wrote in a public letter that he is “ready, willing and able to get into good trouble by breaking quorum,” referencing the famous quote from the late Congressman and civil rights advocate John Lewis.

The fifteen Democrats who left for the day didn’t miss much in Texas. The House was not scheduled to meet on the floor or in committees on Friday.

The group also includes state Reps. Richard Raymond of Laredo, Nicole Collier of Fort Worth, and Donna Howard of Austin; Ana Hernandez, Christina Morales and Lauren Ashley Simmons of Houston; Chris Turner of Grand Prairie; and Rafael Anchía, Jessica Gonzalez, Ana-María Rodriguez Ramos, Toni Rose and Linda Garcia of Dallas.