State legislators from across the United States have gathered in Boston this week for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summit — but the bipartisan conference became a venue for Democrats to rally around their fellow legislators who’d fled Texas to prevent Republicans from moving forward with mid-decade redistricting.
The broader conversation among Democrats supporting their colleagues in Texas included concerns that Republicans in other states could move forward in the coming weeks and months with their own mid-decade redistricting schemes as part of a broader effort to help pad the GOP’s narrow majority in the U.S. House in next year’s midterms.
“They’re coming to Missouri next,” Missouri Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck told his fellow Democratic legislators at the Boston rally. “We are going to fight in Missouri, just like they’re doing in Texas.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, said this week that he’s receptive to the idea of calling a special legislative session intended for mid-decade redistricting. Currently, Missouri’s congressional makeup has six Republicans and two Democrats. Missouri politicos have speculated that a proposed redraw would add one pickup opportunity for Republicans.
Beck told NBC News that he’d heard a September special session was being considered. Beck vowed to fight any such efforts, saying, “We’re not going to quietly,” and acknowledged that Missouri legislative Democrats lacked the power of Texas Democrats.
Because Missouri Democrats are in the super-minority in both chambers, leaving the state Capitol is “not an option,” because Republicans don’t need any Democrats to have a quorum.
Missouri House Minority Leader Ashley Aune said at the Boston rally that the GOP effort in Texas amounted to “a canary in a coal mine” and that Missouri Democrats’ “best bet is to get the message out to voters right now as loud as we can to piggyback off of Texas’ messaging.”
Meanwhile, California Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, a Democrat, echoed what her state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has said in recent days about moving forward with his own mid-decade redistricting efforts intended to counter the ones in Texas.
“We are exploring all the options. Everything is on the table to respond,” she said.
“We’re proud of our independent system for picking districts,” she added, referring to the state’s independent redistricting commission, “but we can’t roll over while the Republicans cheat.”
Newsom hopes to work with the Democratic-dominated Legislature starting this month to set up a special election for a statewide ballot measure on Nov. 4. It would offer a newly drawn map if Texas moves forward with its new maps, NBC News reported.
