By JIM VERTUNO, SOPHIE AUSTIN and MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Related Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared shoulder-to-shoulder Friday with Texas Democratic lawmakers in a present of help for his or her practically weeklong walkout, which has blocked a vote on congressional redistricting maps sought by President Donald Trump in a widening nationwide battle over U.S. Home management.
Texas has been the epicenter of Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans’ slender Home majority earlier than subsequent yr. However the standoff is threatening to spill into different states — together with California, New York, Florida and Indiana — in an rising proxy struggle for management of Congress in 2026.
California is shifting towards a particular election in November that Democrats hope might slash 5 Republican-held Home seats within the liberal-leaning state, in direct response to the maneuvering in Texas.
“We are attempting to defend democracy, versus see it destroyed district by district,” Newsom stated amid the group of lawmakers on the governor’s mansion. “There aren’t any guidelines for Donald Trump.”
Pelosi defended the Texas walkout, calling it “self-defense for our democracy.”
She stated Democrats is not going to let Trump “pave over” free and truthful elections within the nation.
Newsom, Pelosi highlight high-stakes in battle over Home strains
The looks of nationally outstanding Democrats Newsom — a possible 2028 presidential candidate — and Pelosi underscored the more and more excessive stakes for a deeply divided Washington.
Earlier Friday the Texas Home failed to satisfy a quorum for the third time this week as Democratic lawmakers continued to keep away from Austin.
Texas Republicans had warned they’d escalate efforts to finish the walkout if defiant Democrats don’t return to the Capitol. However the lawmakers who bolted for factors throughout the nation Aug. 3 nonetheless weren’t again for Friday’s scheduled Home ground vote.
The Texas Structure requires not less than 100 members to be current for the 150-member Home to do enterprise, and Republicans maintain an 88-62 majority within the chamber. Solely 95 lawmakers have been counted as current.
Annoyed Republican leaders continued to ratchet up the strain, together with new and increasing efforts to attempt to take away Democratic lawmakers from workplace and looking for assist from the FBI to help state troopers looking for them.
“We now have all fingers on deck, we’re persevering with to discover” choices to drive Democrats residence, Speaker Dustin Burrows stated after the chamber failed to succeed in a quorum. “We are going to maintain urgent ahead till the job is completed. … Every certainly one of you is aware of finally you’ll come again.”
The information convention in Sacramento got here a number of days after Texas Democrats appeared in Illinois with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who stated he supported the walkout “as a result of they don’t wish to reside in a rustic the place the president rigs elections for his facet. That’s not democracy.”
One of many lawmakers in California, Texas State Rep. Ann Johnson, alluded to the nationwide implications of the dispute, saying, “We acknowledge this isn’t nearly Texas. That is about making certain that the voters get to find out the result of their subsequent election.”
As California Democrats privately put together a proposal for brand new Home district strains that might go to voters, Meeting member Isaac Bryan stated, “This isn’t a turn-the-other-cheek second whereas they proceed to ship blow after blow to the foundations of democracy.”
The Texas Home is scheduled to reconvene Monday, however the dozens of Democrats who left the state have proven no indicators of buckling.
Mounting authorized threats
Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on to the all-Republican state Supreme Courtroom on Friday looking for to have 13 of the Democratic lawmakers instantly faraway from workplace, or not less than given a 48-hour warning that they need to return or have their places of work declared vacated.
The lawsuit argues that the lawmakers have successfully “deserted” their workplace and duties, they usually have been singled out for making public statements that they left for the aim of blocking the vote and disrupting Home enterprise.
“Their out-of-state riot can’t go unchecked, and the enterprise of Texas should go on,” Paxton stated.
Paxton’s lawsuit consists of Rep. Gene Wu, chairman of the Home Democratic Caucus, who additionally faces an analogous lawsuit filed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Wu’s authorized crew argued that the state structure permits Home members to be eliminated solely by a two-thirds vote of the chamber, not the courts.
Wu stated this week that quorum-breaking just isn’t an abandonment of workplace however a legit type of dissent.
In a separate submitting in state district court docket, Paxton additionally sued former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who ran unsuccessfully for governor and Senate, alleging that his political group, Powered by Folks, improperly gave cash to cowl prices for the absent Democrats and continued to lift extra for them. O’Rourke and his group didn’t instantly situation a response to the submitting however stated this week that they’d be undeterred by Paxton’s threats.
Paxton stated later Friday that he had been granted a short lived restraining order halting the spending and fundraising whereas the case continues.
Republicans pledge to be victorious
Abbott promised that he’s keen to play the lengthy recreation to get the invoice handed.
“We now have an agenda to move priorities essential to Texans, and we’ll get it achieved. I’ll name particular session after particular session—regardless of how lengthy it takes—till the job is completed,” Abbott stated on the social platform X.
The present particular session ends Aug. 19, and the lacking lawmakers already face mounting fines for day-after-day they’re gone and civil arrest warrants issued by the state Home.
The widening battle past Texas
Trump desires 5 extra seats out of Texas to probably keep away from a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the U.S. Home and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.
The dynamics might embroil the 2026 midterm marketing campaign in legislative and court docket battles testing Trump’s energy over the Republican Occasion, Democrats’ skill to mount opposition and the sturdiness of the U.S. system of federalism that balances energy between Washington and the states.
Vertuno reported from Austin, and Blood from Los Angeles. Related Press writers Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, and Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed. Payne and Lathan are corps members for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
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