Abbott: Texas can 'eliminate' 10 Democratic districts in response to California

[RandySF]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) warned that Texas could get rid of as many as 10 Democratic districts if California moves ahead with its plan to redraw its House map and neutralize the expected GOP gains in the Lone Star State.

“Listen, all those big blue states, they’ve already gerrymandered,” Abbott told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday, when asked if he was concerned about a redistricting arms race as Texas moves forward to create new congressional lines.

“Look at the map of Illinois. Look at the map of California, New York and Massachusetts, and so many other blue states they gerrymandered a long time ago. They got nothing left with regard to what they can do,” Abbott said. “And know this: If California tries to gerrymander, find more districts, listen, Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state.”

Abbott’s remarks underscore how Republicans plan to be as aggressive as possible in trying to knock off as many Democratic seats as they can. Right now, the state has 25 House Republicans and 12 Democrats, in addition to one vacancy waiting to be filled after the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) died in March.



https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5447180-texas-gop-redistricting-threat/?email=066c0990fa413d52c3842f29a42abb22ffa00eae&emaila=02c3337a6605235631b8cab2e023d54e&emailb=e0d37ab6f97ed06914f0e75a1ebed673001a81f7f84978ff9209f3e23f7ba5d3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=08.11.25EL-News%20Alert-Texas%20Abbott

[SSJVegeta]

1. ...

That would become the world's dumbest dummymander in history.

[Jack Valentino]

2. Looking forward to hearing about a "wheelchair accident" in the state of Texas....

[dweller]

3. sigh

By the time 2026 gets here and if there are elections
No one will believe or trust the outcomes …

smdh



✌🏻

[LeftInTX]

4. He's full of it!

[Johonny]

5. California got rid of gerrymandered districts

Which is why the governor of California needs to actually pass legislation and redraw the maps.

And what Texas is doing is not without risk as their districts are already heavily gerrymandering. To carve out new gains is to create more razor thin margin districts. In a wave election these districts could lead to unexpected loses... maybe.

[MichMan]

25. The voters of California voted to take the power away from the legislature and give it to an independent commission

I believe Gov Newsom is proposing that it be taken away from them and given back to the legislature. Not sure the voters are going to go for that

[FBaggins]

32. He's wording it as a temporary action - but you're right that it is not guaranteed to succeed.

It was tried once before, and it failed overwhelmingly.

Now there's a much better reason to support it... but that doesn't mean it will happen.

[LeftInTX]

28. I checked those maps. The only ones capable of flipping to blue are the two in south texas.

The red districts are red enough that they can be diluted and still remain red.

Here are the results from Chip Roy's 2024 race

61.9% 36.1%





Here are the results from Tony Gonzales' 2024 race
62.3% 37.7%






Tony did not have a strong Democratic opponent in 2024. Gonzales didn't even campaign in the general election! No one else has stepped up. It's sad.
In 2022, the Democrats had a great candidate, but Gonzales had tons of help from the Koch brothers and he campaigned hard.

Texas is capable of cracking and packing even more! Notice they split up urban areas.

[FBaggins]

36. They really didn't

They just handed the line-drawing power to a commission

But a semi-random commission in a bright blue state still leans heavily blue.

[Celerity]

6. Cleaned-up link.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5447180-texas-gop-redistricting-threat/

[Hugin]

7. As always, every accusation is a confession.

Already gerrymandered. That’s rich!

[BoRaGard]

11. Yes, just another republicon lie

they are the party of BEARING FALSE WITNESS

[GoCubsGo]

13. And, projection.

Every accusation they make is a confession. Every last Republican state that has multiple districts has the snot gerrymandered out of it Texas is one of the worst.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Hell, Greg! Why not eliminate ALL democratic districts?

This wouldn't be happening if Texas had elected Wendy Davis.

[Emile]

10. Piss on him. He started this shit, call his bluff.

[GoCubsGo]

12. No, asshole. Your state is the one that's got "nothing left."

From what I understand, there are 2 million more registered Democrats than there are registered Republicans. You are already probably close the limits of being able to gerrymander them out, if not at them already. I highly doubt that you have the ability to gerrymander 10 Democratic districts out of existence. You're just hoping that Newsom, Pritzker, and the others haven't noticed. You're in for a rude awakening...

[MichMan]

14. If there are 2 million more Democrats than Republicans, how is it that Trump won Texas by 14 points?

[GoCubsGo]

15. Maybe lots of people stayed home?

Not all registered voters actually cast ballots in any given election. God only knows how many ballots that were cast got rejected, too.

[MichMan]

19. 3.6 million Democrats stayed home?

Harris got a total of 4.8 million vs Trump with 6.4 million. One would have to believe that 57% of all Democratic voters must have stayed home and not voted.

Doesn't make any logical sense.

[GoCubsGo]

20. Texas had a 61..5% turnout

Two-thirds of their districts are gerrymandered Republican. If you're a Democrat in one of those districts, it's completely plausible that they're not going to bother voting, because they know it won't matter. Throw in all of the voter suppression tactics, like bomb threats and insufficient numbers of voting machines in Democratic districts, and voter roll purges, as Magik Muffin pointed out, and yes, I can see where that many didn't vote.

[MichMan]

22. Possible, but most intelligent people understand the gerrymandering has nothing to do with Presidential and Senate races

[GoCubsGo]

23. You're the one who brought it up.

Nobody else here, myself included, has said anything about Presidential and Senate races until you started in with your Gotcha! games. You're free to disagree with me, but keep your insults to yourself.

[MichMan]

26. Go ahead and believe that Democrats outnumber Republicans in Texas by 2 million if you want

Doesn't make any sense to me given the voting results for the last 20 years

[MagickMuffin]

16. Voter roll purges helps clear the way for cheating

We have non voters, but I believe the biggest culprit is purging the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands people.

[TnDem]

35. There a million and a half more statewide, BUT

There are almost three million voters that are independent or "unaffiliated".

[Liberal In Texas]

17. This meme that there are more registered Dems should stop. In Texas we don't register a party!

All you can go by is the primary voting numbers. And recently repubs have turned out more than dems. And the primaries are open, you can vote in either parties that you feel like.

[LeftInTX]

29. We do not have registered Democrats or Registered Republicans in Texas!

I don't know where they are getting their stats!

2024 Democratic Primary 982,069
2024 Republican Primary 2,323,019

2020 Democratic Primary 2,094,428
2020 Republican Primary 2,017,167


2016 Democratic Primary 1,435,895
2016 Republican Primary 2,836,488

2012 Democratic Primary 590,164
2012 Republican Primary 1,449,477


2008 Democratic Primary 2,874,986
2008 Republican Primary 1,362,322


Overall the state votes about 55% GOP.

In 2008, we had 1,400,000 more Democrats vote in the primary, but McCain got 55% of the vote in the general election.


That's a weird meme floating around!

[edhopper]

18. And of course

Tapper pointed out how Abbott was wrong about what he said.

[Jersey Devil]

21. If Abbott does that it could backfire bigly

For every Repub district he creates he will have to take some Repubs out of already Repub districts, making those districts more competative. So if there is Dem wave election he could get wiped out. If they could have safely made 10 more Repub districts before now they would have done so already.

[Diraven]

27. Although

Trump won Texas by 14% in 2024. It's literally possible with a surgical enough gerrymander to get every district to that margin so they can get rid of every Democratic seat if they want to, and that margin would be hard to overcome.

[FBaggins]

34. The same thing is true in California (only more so)

California was only slightly bluer last year than Texas was red.

Texas is looking to move from 25/14 to 30/9 - That's a move from 64% of the House seats to 77%

California, OTOH, is already 82% Democratic in their House delegation (43/9)... and they're talking about shooting for 49/3 (a shocking 94%).

There are already five existing blue districts that were very close last November.

[eShirl]

24. If that were true, that';s what they'd already be doing.

[Scruffy1]

30. Bingo

Having lived in El Paso for the last six years it seems pretty obvious that the state government is totally corrupt. One of the legislatures last votes was not to audit the $11,000,000,000 that Abbott "spent" on the border fiasco. Two thousand dollar bus tickets, charter flights, etc. The Texas DOT has been "working" on the Zaragosa bridge intersection for 5 years. They don't even pretend anymore. Tim Dunn owns the Texas legislare and bought the votes to keep Paxton in office. The legislators only get about $700 a month when not in session so I have to assume there are some really good "fringe benefits." Just today the utilities commission is refusing to release the information on crypto power consumption. Paxton is suing for the info so I assume that as soon as he gets his cut he will drop it. The reason that Harris didn't do well in Texas is the bullshit media selling immigrant with made up shit like 'Venzualan Gangs' and no effort from the Dems at all.I live three houses from the border and it's the safest place I"ve lived in since I was a boy in a small town in Iowa.

[Exp]

31. The really obvous thing that the GOP doesn't want to talk about is that IF THEIR POLICIES were actually favorable to

the public, they would not need to cheat.

That's it in a wing-nut-shell.

[mdbl]

33. Abbott isn't a republican, he's a trump ass licker

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

37. Is he going to outlaw the party?