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As Texas Republicans are trying to redraw Congressional districts to expand their majority in the U.S. House ahead of the expected competitive midterm elections in 2026, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of D-Texas said Democrats should “set and set fire.”
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate told former Biden advisor Neela Tanden on Tuesday that California Gov. Gavin Newsom himself supports attempts to rezone the blue nation to deepen Democratic congressional control.
O’Rourke streamlined California’s rezoning because “we already have an authoritarian president.” And he admitted his party’s irony following the Democrats’ lawsuit that “I don’t like Republicans do,” but O’Rourke said, “This is for the very future and destiny of the Republic. We’ll lose it, you’ll never get it back.”
“I don’t just think [Newsom] I think we should do this, he shouldn’t wait for Texas,” O’Rourke said.
The court closes the battle of rezoning in a key swing state – this is what it means
Former US Congressman Beto O’Rourke will speak to attendees on October 2, 2024 in Austin, Texas (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) during a “Our Battle, Our Future” rally at the Millennium Bowling Alley on October 2, 2024.
O’Rourke criticized the Democrats, compassionate about “the right thing” rather than “to hold power.” He said Democrats working to lose control of the White House and Congress in 2024 “have to focus purely on power.”
Democrat Beto O’Rourke says he’ll run for the Senate if the Texans want him.
If Democrats don’t fight back, O’Rourke said “we’re about to descend on something already less than democracy.”
Texas’ GOP-controlled state legislature began a special session on Monday. One key item on their agenda is the push by Republicans in Red State to redraw the current Congress map to reduce the number of already marginalized Democrat-controlled districts.
This is part of a broader effort by GOPs across the country to maintain control of the chamber, and cushion losses elsewhere in the country will cause parties of power to lose their seats, traditionally facing political headwinds.
And President Donald Trump is looking to prevent what happened during his first term in the House of Representatives in the middle of 2018.
“Texas will be the biggest,” the president told reporters last week. Because he predicted the number of GOP-friendly seats that could be added through rezoning in the lonely Seongju. “Simply redrawing and you’ll pick up five seats.”
President Donald Trump will then speak at the American Fest in Phoenix on Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Rick Stelli)
Hours ago, Trump made a call with the Republican Congressional delegation in Texas, and sources confirmed to Fox News that he told lawmakers that the president was aiming to redraw the map to create five new winnable seats.
Democrats manage only 12 of the state’s 38 Congressional Districts, with seats that tend to be blue-tendent after the death of Rep. Sylvester Turner.
The idea is to move Democratic voters from their competitive seats to nearby GOPLEANING districts, and Republican voters to nearby neighborhoods currently controlled by Democrats.
Both conservative Republicans and Trump allies, Gov. Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick, said they need to be redistributed due to constitutional concerns raised by the Justice Department over a small minority-controlled district.
“Come to the point, each of these seats is held by Democrats, either Black or Mexican-American,” O’Rourke said Tuesday. “That’s what they’re doing. It’s literally a member of the Congress that chooses their own voters.”
Rezoning usually takes place at the start of each decade, based on the latest US census data. Mid-term rezoning is rare, but it is not without precedent.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas needs to be rezoned due to constitutional concerns raised by the Justice Department in a small minority-dominated district. (Shellby Tauber/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Democrats have denounced Trump and Texas Republicans for what they describe as grabs of power, and as Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said, “Democrats are trying to push back off aggressively because they’re the right thing to do.”
“They can play this game,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media last week.
The following day, after the meeting, Democrats from California’s Congressional Delegation said they had ambitious plans to win at least five seats through district changes. The Democrats currently control 43 of Golden State’s 52 Congressional Districts.
But in California, it is not easy to enact change as the maps of Congress are drawn by independent committees that are not supposed to affect their work on partisanship.
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Newsom suggested this week that the nation’s democratically controlled assembly should move forward with a mid-painting of the map, arguing that it may not be banned by the 17-year-old voting initiative that created the Independence Commission.
The governor also proposed to hold a special election promptly to abolish the committee ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Both plans are considered long shots. Because they face many legislative, legal and financial hurdles.
Deirdre Heavey is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
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