In case you missed it, the Texas State Legislature is embroiled in yet another intense debate over voting rights, this one about a blatant attempt to “gerrymander” congressional districts to create five more GOP seats to rig the 2026 election.
Except this debate is not actually happening right now, because more than 50 Democratic legislators in the Texas House have done a “Texas two-step” to seek sanctuary in other states. By doing so, these brave legislators have denied the GOP leadership the 2/3 quorum required by the state’s Constitution to do business. Until they return, there’s no “business as usual” in Austin—and they’ve vowed not to return, despite increasing threats of arrest, prosecution, and even loss of their seats.
Why did Texas’ Gov. Greg Abbott even call this special session—especially in the middle of the decade? Redistricting is usually done only every 10 years. In 2021, the GOP Legislature adopted a clearly “gerrymandered” map of congressional districts engineered to favor Republicans. Only 12 of the 38 Texas House seats are now held by Democrats.
Why bother pressing their ill-gotten advantage even further? Because Donald Trump demanded it. Fearful of his cratering popularity, Trump is taking Machiavellian steps to maintain his death-grip on Congress.
Without gerrymandering, it’s almost impossible for the GOP/MAGA crowd to hold on: Only twice since 1934 has the president’s party gained mid-term seats in both houses: FDR in 1934 and George W. Bush in 2002. In 24 mid-term elections, voters have usually thumped the sitting president by flipping an average of 28 Congressional seats.
So, we’re now engaged in a full-scale showdown over mid-decade gerrymandering. What’s happening in Texas ain’t stayin’ in Texas:
• In Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to “fight fire with fire,” asking the Legislature—and ultimately, California voters—to remove congressional districts from the nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission, the body created in 2010 with the Voters First Act. Instead, the Legislature would craft new districts to potentially add five Democratic seats to counter Trump’s moves in Texas.
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared war, calling for new congressional maps that would bypass that state’s nonpartisan Independent Redistricting Commission, created 10 years ago; it drew New York’s districts that resulted in Democrats losing four seats in 2022.
• Illinois took the redistricting spotlight when Gov. JB Pritzker hosted the Texas Democrats fleeing their state to thwart the GOP quorum call. He’s leading a new redistricting campaign in Illinois, saying “we’re fighting for democracy.”
This redistricting crisis is boiling over just as we observe the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. LBJ signed that landmark measure into law at the height of the civil rights movement, guaranteeing the right of all American citizens to vote. Recent Supreme Court rulings have eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, crippling the ability of minority voters to challenge states’ gerrymandering, with only one area remaining, at least for now, where redistricting still draws scrutiny: When it’s clearly motivated by racism, blatantly diluting the votes of racial minorities.
The security of our democracy now rests in the hands of state legislators, as Trump threatens to rig the 2026 elections in every “red” state where the GOP can pull it off. The “blue” states intend to un-rig the election, out-maneuvering Trump’s desperate attempt to hold onto power.
Sadly, early indications are that Democrats face an uphill battle: Too many states are held in a GOP headlock.
Amid this uproar comes a lonely call for peace from California GOP Congressman Kevin Kiley of Rocklin. He’s introduced a bill to prohibit mid-decade redistricting nationwide, hoping to “stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.”
Kiley’s bill won’t get any action in the House, though: Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly adjourned the House for the summer.
Here in SLO, a redistricting rumble is nothing new. In 2021, a conservative majority of the Board of Supervisors adopted the bizarre “Patten” map, clearly intended to give an edge to Republican candidates in four of the five districts in the county. The 2022 election produced a surprise when incumbent Bruce Gibson heroically won reelection in his gerrymandered district by 13 votes.
Gibson then collaborated with his colleagues on the board and state Sen. John Laird to create an independent redistricting commission for this county.
None of our local county or state legislative districts’ boundaries are at risk from this scorched-earth battle to redraw congressional lines in Austin, Sacramento, Albany, and in Washington. It’s truly an existential crisis that will determine whether we can sustain our 250-year commitment to government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Δ
Reach John Ashbaugh through the editor or send a letter to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Education Today 2025.
Gerrymandering isn’t new or limited to just one party. The Democrats have long practiced it. In fact, it was the Democrat’s gerrymander in California in the early 1980s, and the Rose Bird court’s decision to invalidate the citizens commission that the voters established in response, which turned me from a Democrat into the cranky conservative that I am today.
t is funny that Mr. Ashbaugh denounces the Texas redistricting as an existential threat to democracy, and then goes on to favorably describe Gavin Newsom’s attempt to gerrymander California by eliminating the voter approved commission, as “fighting fire with fire”. It seems that the ol’ “moral compass” gives inconsistent results.
Both parties should consider the potential risks they face in tampering with political norms. As you may recall, Democrat Harry Reid’s stunt to jam through some Obama judicial appointments by using the “nuclear option” ended up giving Trump three SCOTUS appointments that the Democrats were powerless to block or influence. And, of course, there were the efforts to disqualify Trump from the ballot, and to criminally prosecute him. Both parties may want to step back from the precipice.