WASHINGTON — Some Republicans representing competitive districts in blue states are speaking out against their party’s push to redraw congressional lines in Texas in an attempt give the GOP up to five more House seats.
Reps. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., have called to impose nationwide limits on partisan gerrymandering, a rare move for Republicans in Washington who have thwarted proposed bans for years.
Democratic governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Kathy Hochul have threatened to retaliate against Texas by pursuing their own redistricting plans that could knock out GOP-held swing districts, like those Lawler and Kiley represent.
Kiley announced he will introduce legislation Tuesday to nullify new House maps states adopt before the 2030 census, including any that might be approved this year.
That would block the ongoing Texas effort and any potential push in California, his office said.
“Gavin Newsom is trying to subvert the will of voters and do lasting damage to democracy in California,” Kiley said in a statement Monday. “Fortunately, Congress has the ability to protect California voters using its authority under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This will also stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.”
Lawler, a fellow second-term Republican who represents a swing district, also said he will introduce legislation to prohibit gerrymandering in every state.
“Gerrymandering is wrong and should be banned everywhere — including in New York, Texas, California, and Illinois. I’m introducing legislation to ban it,” Lawler said Monday on X, inviting Democrats to sign on.
Still, it’s unlikely that House Republican leaders would allow a vote on any legislation to limit partisan redistricting. That would be an about-face from the party’s long-standing view that Washington shouldn’t impose any such limits on states. The office of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., didn’t immediately comment on the idea.
Speaking to reporters recently in the Capitol, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chair of House Republicans’ campaign operation this cycle, kept his distance from the Texas push and wouldn’t say whether he supports it.
“Well, it’s up to the states. I mean, I have nothing to do with it. I found out about it when you all wrote about it,” Hudson said. Asked whether he’s worried about California retaliating, he replied: “I’m not concerned. Some of the states, they can do what they want to do.”
Newsom has mounted an aggressive push in recent days, on podcasts and social media, to build support for doing away with California’s redistricting commission and allowing the state’s supermajority-Democratic Legislature to draw its own maps for House districts. He even reposted a user’s hypothetical suggestion to create an extremely gerrymandered map with 52 Democratic-friendly seats, which would knock out all nine Republicans currently representing California, including Kiley.
And Democrats in Washington have tried to pass legislation to prohibit partisan gerrymandering, some of it in recent years during the Biden administration. A section of the sweeping For the People Act of 2021 would have required all states to set up independent redistricting commissions with balanced partisan representation. Democrats passed it in the House along party lines during the Biden administration, but a different version of the bill failed to overcome a Senate GOP filibuster.
Fighting to win back the majority and become speaker, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has turned his focus to combating the GOP’s efforts in Texas in recent weeks. On Capitol Hill, Jeffries privately met with members of the California congressional delegation to discuss options for responding to Texas Republicans, a Democratic lawmaker said.
Last week, Jeffries traveled to the Texas State Capitol in Austin to meet with Democrats in both the congressional delegation and the statehouse to draw attention to the matter. He said the Texas special legislative session should have focused on fixing the state’s broken energy grid and “relief, recovery and resiliency” in the wake of deadly floods in the Hill Country.
“Donald Trump has ordered Greg Abbott and compliant Texas Republicans to race back to Austin have a special session in order to rig the congressional map and undermine the ability of Texans to have a free and fair midterm election. That is wrong,” Jeffries said at a news conference, flanked by Democrats.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment, and all options should be on the table to protect the people of Texas,” he continued. “We will fight them politically. We will fight them governmentally. We will fight them in court. We will fight them in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the people of Texas and beyond.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said that if Republicans use the redistricting tactic, Democrats must fight with the same firepower.
“I hate what Texas is doing. But if they’re going to do it, of course we have to fight back,” Murphy told NBC News. “Democracies die when the regime plays outside the box and the opposition decides to stay inside the box. So as norms change, we can’t just cry about it complain about it. We’ve got to fight fire with fire.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Mark Takano of California, who is set to become chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee again if Democrats take back the House next year, said he’s confident California voters would have Democrats’ backs if they pursue mid-decade redistricting.
“The voters of California are pretty clear that … not just California but the future of our country is harmed by Donald Trump not having any checks put on him,” Takano said. “I think California is very interested in seeing a check being put on Donald Trump’s power; he’s voracious. He doesn’t see any limits to himself. It’s all very personal to him, and it’s, frankly, just corrupt.”
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