“Game On”: Dem Governors Hit Back at Texas Forcing Through Rigged Maps

Texas appears to have sparked a redistricting domino effect.

Republicans in the Lone Star State forced through their gerrymandered maps Wednesday night by locking state representatives inside the Capitol until they voted on a chart that would carve out five new GOP-favorable districts and erase Democratic areas. The brutal initiative followed weeks of counterefforts by state Democrats, who at one point fled Texas in order to avoid participating in the Donald Trump–directed vote.

Other areas of the country were watching the bedlam to ascertain just how far Texas would go to obey Trump’s command—and now, they’re acting.

Democratic governors on both coasts proclaimed redistricting war in the wake of the vote, announcing on social media that they would work to offset Texas’s maps, intended to help the GOP secure five more House seats in Washington.

“Game on,” wrote New York Governor Kathy Hochul, responding to news of the passed vote.

“It’s on, Texas,” posted California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Congressional maps are typically redrawn every 10 years, after new census data is released. But Texas’s decision to do so in the middle of the decade—at Trump’s direction—has raised alarms, with Democrats across the country labeling the effort a threat to democracy.

Between them, New York (26) and California (52)—two of the country’s most populous states—have 78 representatives, the bulk of whom are Democrats. Their share accounts for nearly 18 percent of the House’s membership. But as Texas worked to obey Trump’s midterm demands, the pair of Democratic strongholds warned that carving out more Democratic seats was well within their power.

“This is radical rigging of a midterm election,” Newsom told The Siren podcast earlier Wednesday. “Radical rigging of an election. Destroying, vandalizing this democracy, the rule of law. So, I’m sorry. I know some people’s sensibilities. I respect and appreciate that. But right now, with all due respect, we’re walking down a damn different path. We’re fighting fire with fire. And we’re gonna punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”

When asked last month if he was concerned about California following suit in the redistricting department, Trump said that the White House would “fight them.”

“You know they’re so corrupt in California, you never know what’s going to happen,” Trump said at the time. “But we’ve done pretty well in the courts in California, you see. We’re batting about 1,000, ultimately.”

But the Republican stratagem is far from over. Trump issued similar demands of five other states: Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida.