Texas Showdown
As expected, d ozens of democratic Texas legislators left the state to try to block a vote on redrawn U.S. House maps sought by President Trump. Unfortunately, there is a rule in the Texas legislature demanding there be a quorum to hold a vote. On the other hand, the Governor may just have the right to terminate the terms of elected legislators who try and obstruct the legislature from conducting the people's business.
Gov. Greg Abbott warned he'll seek their removal from office if they don't return.
“Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business,” Abbott wrote Sunday in a statement. “That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.”
Abbott gave Democrats a deadline to return to Austin.
“This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025,” Abbott wrote. “For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”
The governor also accused House Democrats of committing felony crimes."
“In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies,” he wrote. “Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept’ such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws…The same could be true for any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’ such funds to fleeing Democrat House members. I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.”
Greg Abbott threatens to remove, replace House Democrats who fled Texas
One thing we can be sure of: the dems will have lawyers filling lawsuits with cherry picked Obama judges should the Governor take action to fire them.
The deadline for the dirty dems is 3:00 PM today, Texas time.
In other news:
According to the New York Times, in the New York City mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani actually won over Jewish voters. As shocking as that may seem, who is not surprised by that?
President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for producing heavily revised jobs numbers.
The Ukrainian authorities arrested a number of officials on suspicion of corruption. The arrests came days after Volodymyr Zelensky reversed an effort to weaken anticorruption agencies amid protests.
Over 3,000 workers, who build Boeing fighter jets in St Louis are now on strike.
CBS faces a growing dilemma over the future of mega-buck anchor Gayle King as ratings for her “woke” morning show collapse — and the struggling network’s new owners vow to root out left-wing bias, The Post has learned. The “CBS Mornings” co-host, one of the fading Tiffany Network’s few remaining stars, is part of a culture that has “dug in” against attempts by higher-ups to move away from polarizing coverage, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Exclusive | Gayle King's future at CBS murky as ratings for 'woke' morning show tank -- and Skydance vows to scrap left-wing bias
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
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Good morning and welcome to the news.
Apparently, Gov Abbott isn't playing games:
So... Is it really "abdicating the duties of their office"? It seems a lot like "support and defend the Constitution" to me.
maga generally hasn't been interested in that since 2015.
As Democrats run from the job.
But, but, but all the Republicans were trying to do was draw up legislative voting maps is to break up any Democrat voting blocks of Texans from having a voice in their State. I mean, isn't that what we're all supposed to do? Use any and all means to limit or silence anyone who disagrees with us? It's what the Republicans have been claiming Democrats have done so that makes it okay for Republicans to do it in even more extreme ways.
We should be used to this by now. Republicans project what they intend to do on Democrats (voter fraud, extreme Gerrymandering, lying about election locations and times, passing laws that limit voting on days that are traditionally big voting days for Democrats, voting location intimidation, intentionally disenfranchising certain groups known to favor Democrats, etc.) and then they proceed with their plans because they don't give a fuck about other Americans or even the rule of law, they have only ever cared about themselves so the ends justify the means.
free and fair elections usually don't work out too well for republicans in non-gerrymandered districts.
Here in Cali redistricting is done by a bipartisan commission and Republicans have rarely if ever won a statewide office since.
Lol.
By preventing constitutionally authorized and completely legal proceedings from taking place? Not so much.
I'm not a fan of the redistricting, BTW. But they're not "supporting or defending the Constitution" by throwing a tantrum to prevent votes they're going to lose.
Are you angry they're violating your copyright?
By our leftist friends standards, that would be considered an insurrection since this is what they were claiming happened on Jan 6.
The non-MAGA in Texas universally regard Greg Abbott as a corrupt clown.
Texas Democrats are a contradiction in terms.
They’re not running from a fight. This is the fight.
The fight to win the midterms. Let's give them the fight of their lives.
They left the state. They're running. The little fkng cowards.
LOL. It's going to be hilarious to hear the comments from the same conservatives here when Newsom announces that he will "temporarily set aside California’s independent redistricting commission". I hope the gerrymandering is even more extreme than Texas so that we can hear these conservatives bitch and whine about how unfair it is and how horrible such partisan tactics are and how they recommend the current Republicans flee the State so that Newsom can't pass his own map that essentially eliminates all Republicans from CA. It will be fun to watch them attempt to hypocritically contort logic so that it's great when Abbott does it but horrible, nay 'criminal!' when Newsom does it.
I think its a good thing that some Democrats, even on a national basis, are drawing a line in the sand over this redistricting thing. I hope they can stick to their guns.
He’s going to illegally gerrymander a state that’s already more gerrymandered in democrats favor than Texas will be for republicans? The horror!
You live in Illinois. Of all people to complain about partisan gerrymandering, Illinois democrats might have the least credibility.
Why would I give a fuck about Newsome? The clown run is state BILLIONS in debt and you all put him on a pedestal.
This is grandstanding.
The fight will be in court once the new lines have been drawn.
Oh my god, rofl, what a juvenile response. Ok, what would a big tough, proper Texan do then, huh?
Stay, and just let the thing happen? Or do you have a better tough-guy solution?
Is it? Because it is actually preventing the thing they are trying to prevent. Are you just mad that they’re actually making it harder to do this absurd gerrymandering? Is that really why you dismiss this apparently effective tactic as “grandstanding?”
Completely.
It's not. Best case, it's delaying it.
Already said I'm not a fan of the redistricting.
A quick history lesson would tell you this isn't going to be effective. It's not the first time it's happened. Republicans in Oregon pulled a similar grandstanding stunt in 2021. Everybody knows this is never going to work.
Real fights over redistricting always happen in court. Also not the first time it's happened.
So, Democrats should what, then?
Start getting the lawyers ready.
This is going to pass. That's just a given. It's also not particularly important. What matters is whether or not it stands.
Texas has a long history of court fights over voting districts at pretty much every level. Really, this isn't new. We've done this before. You've already pointed out the phrasing the the Texas Constitution, so this will be an interesting court battle.
But these little media episodes are all for show. The hyper conservatives can go back and campaign on how they're fighting to "keep Texas red" and the liberals can go back and campaign like they're rebels in Star Wars fighting desperately against evil Emperor Abbott and his henchman Darth Paxton. It's great for sound bytes and fundraising.
Are you conceding that what the repubs are doing isn't fair? I know you know the difference between fair and legal.
I'm not really making any comment about fair or not. I don't think any of us have enough information to decide. If the dems think it's unfair, they have the courts to address that.
The history of these things is interesting. In the early 1990s, the City of Dallas was sued for a district voting arrangement that it was said prevented adequate black representation. There were 10 individual districts, 4 regional districts, and then the mayor was elected citywide. So everybody cast a vote for your local district, your region, and then the mayoral race. The courts decided that the City had to redo the voting on a "14-1" basis, to give black people "fair" representation in the City Council.
When the first election took place under the court mandated system, two of the black districts were won by white candidates, including a loss for the civil rights activist who pushed the whole change. He then sued to overturn the election on the basis that the whole point was 4 black councilmen, and whoever the people voted for shouldn't matter. (he lost)
So "fair" often ends up being something we don't expect.
In this case, I'm not sure I agree with a mid-cycle redistricting. You would need to make a pretty compelling case about somebody being under-represented. Maybe it's true, but I've not heard about it before now.
No matter what else happens, the whole "we're gonna send the Texas Rangers to track down those outlaws" is about about the most Texas theatrics not actually starring John Wayne I've seen in a while.
That's what happens when you put party over people.
They are desperate to win back the House so they can impeach Trump
Yep. But we've been seeing that from both parties for many years now. The party has too much money and power and when the party can primary against anyone who doesn't follow the will of the party, this is what is to be expected. It's a shame that politicians have not been beholding to the people for a very long time. I don't hold out hope there will be any real change as it would require either a Constitutional Convention (really don't see 34 states agreeing to such an action) or a revolution (which I also don't see as too many people are just sheep).
The problem they face is they have no credibility to do a damn thing. The last 2 "impeachments" were partisan idiocy.
Donald Trump tried to extort the government of Ukraine into investigating his political opponent Joe Biden. We dont need to guess, it is in the phone call. Did it upset you that he was impeached for that?
looking......looking......looking......nope. Nothing to back up your fictitious claim.
You don't know what the impeachment was for? Really?
Maybe you could explain to me how redrawing some district lines will improve the everyday lives of Texans.
Did you miss the bit where I said we've been seeing this from BOTH parties?
You're seeing it right now.
Restrict the idiocy from Democrats.
But this is nothing new for Texas, it's almost an accepted way to fight politically. From what I find, the Texas Senate has been doing this sort of thing since 1870.
If past is precedent, there will be repeated threats of arrest and of sending lawmen but no one will actually be arrested. Gov. Abbott can call multiple special sessions and eventually at least one Senator will come back and the vote will be taken. There really isn't much that the Democrats in Texas can do except for this type of grandstanding, their as powerless as Republicans in California are.
Since the office holders are incapacitated due to inability to perform their duties, declare the seats vacant. Appoint interim replacements. Plan special elections this fall.
Stop dickin' around and get er done.
Nerm, I think you nailed it.
An alternative would be for Abbott to call an emergency special session of the Texas legislature and allow remote voting as an emergency measure for the special session. The majority can set the rules for a special session. (This is what Pelosi did during the COVID pandemic.) Adopting remote voting for the special session would overcome Democrats absence.
Nice idea but I don't know that Abbott has the authority to declare the seats vacant. And from what I read, the redistricting needs to be completed before the end of the year to meet timelines for the next election cycle. I would expect court cases to also be filed on this. Waiting to see what comes next.
Was wondering if this would be included in the daily news round up , we all remember Mark McCloskey from St Louis right ?
Yes it does belong. I appreciate the update. The wheels of justice really ground slowly for the McCloskeys
It was a national disgrace. All that violence over a a life long criminal.
All for something that was 100% legal to do.
Democrats hate democracy. “We are going to lose a vote so let’s stop people from voting”.
Completely fitting they fled to the fiefdom of a billionaire who gerrymandered the shit out of his own state. Not a principle in sight from democrats.
Yup, well put. I'm waiting for 3:00 pm. I'm sure an Obama judge will try to stop the Governor. At the very least to slow him down.
They are so unscrupulous and they wear it like a badge of honor.
I read some of the democrats are in New York, which redistricted in 2024 to eliminate three republican seats.
The blue states like California and New York have made redistricting a fine art. They've done it and they squeezed every drop out of it.
I live in deep blue MA. In the last election Trump got 40% of the votes in MA, yet we don't have a single Republican in congress.
The GOP is very late, once again learning the game, but they are learning.
Every state draws or redraws districts after the census. They’re required to do so.
Both California and New York took politicians out of the process and created independent commissions to do the job.
Take it to court then.
Let us see what happens.
Why should anyone do that and give up every other option? Unquestionably, this will end up in court, eventually. That is not a reason to acquiesce today.
I like the daily fines. I only hope they are removed from office.
My guess is if they are removed, they will put on more performance art and try and break into the Texas state House...you know, like an insurrection that will be ignored by the leftist media.
They might just like being photographed in handcuffs.
In the end Texas and maybe other red states will do what blue states have done long ago. Five more Republican seats will seal the deal.
Do you think the sudden push to redraw congressional districts - when they are usually done every ten years, right after the census - is somehow especially democratic? Federal law requires that districts be defined in response to the census. The Texas constitution requires that the districts be redrawn this way in the first legislative session following the census - not the second or the third. Texas already redrew the districts after the 2020 census, and they became effective in 2022.
So where is democracy in all this?
The same place it was when New York did it last year. I don't remember Democrats flipping out about Democracy ending when they gerrymandered Republicans out of seats last year.
Democrats, if they object, should vote against it. That's the purpose of a republic. Leaders aren't supposed act like toddlers and only participate if they get their way.
It’s on you to explain why you think this is the same as something New York did last year.
If they think the vote is illegal, they should not take part.
They are both mid decade partisan redistrictings. There's no meaningful distinction between them. It's on you to explain why one is fine and one is "illegal"
hey think the vote is illegal, they should not take part.
No. They should do their jobs and vote against it. Not act like spoiled brats throwing a tantrum.
Yeah, I keep seeing the declaration, but no support.
It’s not their job to do something they think is illegal.
This was the same person whose numbers had to be revised every month under Biden.
Are those democrat lawmakers the same Jackasses as here? flying to DC with no masks while mandating the peons to where them?
That is untrue. Here is the real story:
The story is absolutely TRUE, I apologize for grabbing the wrong picture, is this one better?
Runaway Texas Dem who got COVID after going maskless on private jet calls for universal masks | Daily Mail Online
I think 6 of them ended up with Covid.
I have no issue with the truth. I just like things to be accurate.
Governor Abbott is opening a can of worms. If he does this, it will be done in Democratic states—quid pro quo. I am firmly against redistricting for any state.
So Democratic states, that are already much more gerrymandered than states like Texas would be even after this redistricting, are going to redistrict again? Okay. Unless they figure out how to add seats, they can't get much more partisan.
But they are:
I hate gerrymandering. I have always been in favor of a strictly drawn grid for every state, rather than creating artificial lines to favor one party over the other, and this is why.
from what I saw, its all about given the shrinking white votes more say over the now majority Latino and black communities, cause that makes sense, if you're outta change
I agree gerrymandering is bad. But unless computers are given absolute power to draw lines given a set of directions, its not going away.
But my point is Texas, even under the proposed redistricting, won't be anywhere near as gerrymandered as a state like Illinois. Texas, Florida , Ohio can easily add even more Republican seats. As the New York Times wrote, " States where Democrats would have complete control over any redistricting, such as Illinois and Maryland, are already gerrymandered heavily in their favor. Squeezing more Democratic seats out of those states would be a challenge."
But NY and California are not. This is not the way to go.
Next up, remove illegals from the count to allocate congressional seats.
100%! As that New York democrat admitted the other week, they need illegals for just that purpose.
Could you please verify that, since I checked and I can't find it.
I'll post it again
I missed that you said 1 singular democrat made that comment. Hardly a plan to do so.
Did you miss it last week when MAGA were hair on fire about Zohran Mandani being an admitted communist because he advocates NYC building more affordable cooperative (tenant owned) apartments (as NYC has been doing for well over a century) instead of landlord owned apartment buildings?
Honesty is not the MAGA's strong point!
Here is some honesty for ya:
“People forget in 2020, the Census Bureau confessed that it made a number of errors that cost the Republicans additional seats, up to five seats,” Levin told host Bret Baier. “Florida was supposed to get two more. Texas was supposed to get another one and so forth. Instead, Rhode Island held onto a seat and so forth, and they admit their error. These dark blue states have already blown out Republicans over and over and over again.”
Levin said the errors created big imbalances.
“I mean, this California number is stunning. Forty-three Democrats, nine Republicans. You know, the population in California between the Republicans and the independents far outnumber the Democrats, and yet they control the vast majority of seats,” Levin added. “So, I’d say to the Republicans, ‘You’re fighting fire with fire. That’s OK.'”
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey revealed significant undercounts in Republican-leaning states like Florida (-3.48%) and Texas (-1.92%), while blue states such as New York (+3.44%) and Rhode Island (+5.05%) were overcounted. These errors affected congressional representation and federal resource allocation but cannot be used to revise the final census count."
Mark Levin Explains How US Census Bureau Errors ‘Cost Republicans Additional Seats’
That's actually not remotely true. Here is California voter registration as of October 2023 .
Democrats: 10,353,432
Republicans: 5,286,269
No Party Preference (aka Independents): 4,914,982
Republicans plus Independents equals: 10,201,251, which is 150,000 less than just the Democrats. And Levin presents his lie as if Independents would all side with Republicans. There's no reason to think that's true, and even if it were, they would still be outnumbered by Democrats.
By the way, in California, it's an open primary, unless you're voting Republican. The Republican party requires you to register as a Republican if you want to vote in their primary. The Democrats and other parties do not require it. So, if someone really wanted to vote for Republicans, they wouldn't register as Independent. They'd register as Republican.
Here is what I have:
California Voter Statistics | Independent Voter Project
Even if we go with your numbers, the combination of Republicans and Independents would only outnumber Democrats by less than 350,000. That’s about 1.5%. That still makes his claim that they “far outnumber” Democrats to be a blatant lie.
The truth is that it’s close. And everything else I said about independents remains true. There is no reason to think they would align with Republicans in any significant measure, and they definitely cannot vote in Republican primaries, but they can vote in Democratic primaries. Again, if they wanted to vote for Republicans, they would have to register with the party.
Unfortunately, the audience for this will swallow this falsehood without question. The real scandal is that it’s Texas that is actively engaged in an attempt to change districts mid-decade because they know the party is losing support, nationally, and they want to rig the election in their favor. But rather than address this, they are attacking California, which hasn’t done anything yet, beyond just talking about it in retaliation - if Texas proceeds.
Even then, the suggestion from the governor is that a plan be drawn up and submitted to the people for a vote - a far more democratic process than what is happening in Texas. To even get on the ballot for the people to vote, the measure has to first be approved by 2/3 of both houses of the state legislature.
Ok then let us agree on that.
So how do you explain democrats in California representing a bit less than half the vote, electing 43 of the 52 representatives the state gets to send to the US House? Simple division indicates that 43 = 82% of 52. You only get that through districts that were redistricted long ago. That is why the state is painted blue before every election without a single vote being counted.
The real scandal is that it’s Texas that is actively engaged in an attempt to change districts mid-decade because they know the party is losing support, nationally, and they want to rig the election in their favor.
Even if Texas redistricts as is being proposed, they will still be lightyears away from CA, Illinois, NY and MA which have been heavily redistricted to produce democrat wins. Those 4 states have drained every drop out of redistricting.
But rather than address this, they are attacking California, which hasn’t done anything yet, beyond just talking about it in retaliation - if Texas proceeds.
There is nothing California can do to retaliate. It is as blue as it can be. That is what we call a bluff.
Last night Bret Baier posed a rhetorical question: "What if we used AI to create competitive districts in every state throughout the nation?"
I thought about that and the first thing that entered my mind is that democrats would oppose it.
According to this report , a plurality of Independents in California lean toward the Democratic Party. What’s more, over the last several years, Republican registration has decreased in California at about the same rate that Independents have increased. Democratic registration has remained pretty flat. This means that dissatisfaction is largely found in the Republican Party, not the Democratic Party.
According this other report , California is actually better than average when it comes to gerrymandering, while Texas is already among the worst offenders.
Some states will lose seats when this happens.
California will lose 4, Texas 3 i think,
That's a good thing.
I'm hoping that the next bill Republicans put forward will eliminate everyone but CITIZENS from representation.
Im just glad my state cant be accused of gerrymandering on the federal level and it would be hard to say it can happen on the state level as well.
Avoiding quorum has been done by both parties in several states since the 1800's for a variety of reasons.
Texas is a majority minority state but Republicans keep trying to stop minority districts from representation.
The only gerrymandered Democrat state is Maryland.
There are several other severely gerrymandered states that skew unfairly toward Republicans.
Why aren't Republicans ready to pass a bill to stop ALL gerrymandering? Why aren't they asking for all the people in every state to have fair district representation?