Texas Democrats flee state (again).

They hope they can somehow prevent the redistricting!

Well, it's Deja vu all over again! Democrats once again suggest that they are too principled to actually allow a bill to pass that they do not like. Therefore, they feel justified in fleeing the state to deny a quorum. Now, they obviously understand that they will eventually have to come back to Texas, and they obviously understand that Governor Abbot will simply continue to call special sessions until they do. This is grandstanding at its finest or at its worst depending on your perspective.

Now they are claiming that they need the time to convince people how evil this plan really is. They believe if they just call enough attention to it all, that everyone will just see things the same way they do. This is unlikely because the facts are simply not on their side.

I've been doing a bit of research and Texas is actually not particularly gerrymandered. They currently have 13 Democratic districts which is about a third (33%) of the 38 overall. California has only 9 GOP districts out of 52, which is just over 20%. Illinois is even worse, with Democrats holding over 82% of the seats in that state. So even if Texas passes the new redistricting plan, they will still be less gerrymandered than either California or Illinois. All Texas would be doing is catching up with the gerrymandering masters.

Meanwhile, when you add up all of the states where Democrats hold a trifecta, they are already gerrymandered to 80% Democrat to 20% GOP. Republicans are slightly better at 75% of the seats being Republican while 25% are Democrat. However, the raw numbers are much more important. There are 30 GOP seats in those Democratic states, while there are 44 Democrat seats in those Republican states. There is a lot more wiggle room in those Republican states, than there are Democratic states. So if Newsom, Pritzker and gang want to play tit-for-tat, they will definitely lose more than what they will lose from just Texas and Ohio (which needs to redistrict by law). They should be careful if they decide to start a fight that they are not only unlikely to win, but one they might lose badly.