Texas House Democrats pulled a dramatic stunt by fleeing the state earlier this month, grinding the legislature to a halt and preventing a vote on new congressional maps that could deliver up to five additional seats to Republicans. Governor Greg Abbott called a special session to address redistricting following population shifts, but the absent lawmakers have denied the necessary quorum, forcing Republicans to pursue legal remedies to bring them back.
Former President Barack Obama entered the picture on Thursday, participating in a 30-minute Zoom call with the self-exiled Democrats. Joined by former Attorney General Eric Holder, who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Obama lauded their flight as a bold stand against what he termed Republican overreach.
“What we all recognize is we can’t let a systematic assault on democracy just happen and stand by,” Obama said during the call. He went on to accuse Republicans of manipulating the system because their policies lack broad appeal: “The problem that we’ve been seeing, not just recently, but this goes back a while, is that the Republicans increasingly recognize their ideas won’t sell, so we’ve got to fix the game a little bit, and by drawing maps that splinter democratic voting blocs, by packing in Democrats into one district so that they don’t have influence in other districts.” Wrapping up that thought, he added, “That’s not fair. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work.”
Obama also highlighted broader threats under the current administration, without naming President Donald Trump directly, pointing to the “militarization of cities” and the “politicization of our justice departments and our military.”
He warned, “Those are trend lines that remind us this precious democracy that we’ve got is not a given. It’s not self-executed. It requires us to fight for it. It requires us to stand up for it.” Emphasizing the need for equitable processes, he stated, “And when we have fair voting rights, and we have fair maps, and we’re fairly competing, that’s good for everybody, not just one side.”
The former president praised the Democrats’ actions for sparking a chain reaction, including California Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement to pursue retaliatory redistricting in his state to neutralize potential GOP gains from Texas. Obama described such mid-decade gerrymandering as “highly irregular” but acknowledged it as a temporary countermeasure.