Texas Democrats are leaving the state in an attempt to prevent the state House from holding a vote Monday on new congressional maps that Republicans hope will net them several additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
The dramatic move Sunday could expose Democrats to fines and other penalties — with the state’s attorney general having previously threatened to arrest them if they took such an action. Refusing to attend legislative session is a civil violation, however, so Democrats legally could not be jailed and it’s unclear who has the power to carry out the warrants.
Democrats have cast the decision to leave the state as a last-ditch effort to stop Republicans who hold full control of the Texas government from pushing through a rare mid-decade redrawing of the congressional map at the direction of President Donald Trump.
I can’t stand redistricting shenanigans like this. All maps for all states should be done by computer. Any politician who has a problem with the computer’s results can explain why before a bipartisan committee. The committee can decide whether to implement any changes.
That’s it. No theatrics, no bullshit.
I would be fine with that under any administration before this one. Any government related technology now comes with bullshit and theatrics baked in by executive order.
Grok will draw the district lines
Perfect! My administration will select the programmers…
Lol choose whoever you want. Wait till they see my $10mil check
Yeah but how do you program the computer? I’m cool with just using city and county lines.
I’m a fan of the shortest splitline algorithm.
I don’t think computers should be doing distracting. Minority communities deserve representation and an algorithm could easily divide those communities into separate districts taking away their ability to collectively organize and advocate for themselves. A lot of the horrible gerrymandering shaped districts are made to connect minority communities so they can have a say.
If were not gonna do proportional representation then I think Michigan has a good system where they have a non partisan independent distracting board that is randomly selected from citizens who apply.
I don’t think districts are good. I think allocation based on proportion is better if we are going to change laws. If there is 10 seats 55.1%/44.9% is the vote for platforms in the state then we should hold a primary for 4 seats on x platform and 6 primary election for other platforms. Then land weirdness won’t matter per state. Every vote counts.