United States: Texas Democratic elected officials raise their self-imposed exile

The American democratic elected officials in the Texas Parliament announced their return to this state on Monday, ending two weeks of a self-imposed exile and paving the way to the adoption of a new electoral card wanted by Donald Trump to increase his majority at the Congress in Washington.

“After having gathered the Americans to join this existential battle for democracy, we return to Texas under our own conditions – ready to build the legal file necessary to defeat these anticonstitutional cards before the courts,” said the parliamentary group of Democrats in the Chamber of Representatives of Texas in a press release on X.

Since the beginning of August, the local parliament was the scene of a distance confrontation between elected representatives of republican and democrats due to the will of the first to redraw the 38 electoral districts of this state of the South, the most populous second in the country.

Pushed by Donald Trump, Texas Republican officials want to modify the electoral card so that the Democratic vote is diluted, a technique called “Gerrymandering”, and thus increase their contingent of 25 elected representatives in Washington in November 2026.

But the Democrats, in minority in the Texan Parliament, try to oppose the adoption of this redistribution. They fled the state in early August, taking refuge in Chicago or New York, so that a quorum is not reached. Their departure had prevented the Republicans from organizing a vote on the text.

On Monday, by announcing their return, they denounced the will of the Republicans to “silence the voters of the minorities by a + Gerrymandering + racist”. They believe that the new electoral card dilutes the voices of the African-American and Hispanic electorates which, mostly, traditionally vote democratic.

While at the same time received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in the White House, Donald Trump posted a message of support for republican officials in Texas on his Platform. “It is great to see the Republicans fight everywhere to save our country,” he wrote, thanking Governor Greg Abbott and by urging the new card “as soon as possible”.

As a sign of response to the initiative of Texas, several Democratic governors have announced their intention to do the same, like the Californian Gavin Newsom. But unlike Texas, where the legal process allows this relatively easily redistribution, the Democratic States have for many and even constitutional legislative safeguards.

Gavin Newsom, to whom many observers lend presidential ambitions, will thus have to submit to the referendum his project aimed at putting an end to an independent commission for electoral cut. If the Californians approve of it, the local parliament with a democratic majority will be able to set up a new card which should ensure five additional seats, as in Texas.