There was an emergency meeting at the U.S. Capitol Monday night involving Republican Congress members from Texas.
The New York Times reports this meeting was convened by Texas Republican Mike McCaul. The topic? A reported push by President Trump to have Texas redraw congressional districts ahead of next year’s midterm election.
Now, Texas isn’t due to redistrict yet, and Republican incumbents have some questions about the plan.
J. David Goodman has been following this and joined Texas Standard with the details. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: You’ve got some people speaking off the record here, because we haven’t heard directly from the Trump administration on this, I understand. But what is the Republican argument for redistricting sooner than later?
J. David Goodman: The argument has really come out of the White House, and as far as we can tell, it’s being driven by President Trump and his advisors about losing seats in next year’s midterms and looking around the country at where could they pick up seats in the House to try and blunt Democratic gains and maybe possibly hold on to control there because the president is concerned about what a Democratic House would mean for the rest of his presidency and possible investigations.
So why are some GOP incumbents not so sure?
Well, you know, to be perfectly frank, they like the districts as they were drawn just a couple of years ago.
I mean, these are districts that are safe for them, that they’re used to, they’ve campaigned in already. And they are not excited about a process that would have them both lose those familiar districts and then you have to campaign in new areas and, you know, oversee essentially a very fraught process of redistricting at a time when they would rather be focused on both doing their jobs and running for election.
So what do you gather from what you’ve heard about these meetings among Texas congressional members? I mean, is this Republican delegation just trying to make sure they’re in lockstep, maybe especially if they decide to push back against the president?
Yeah, so what yesterday’s meeting was about, as far as we have learned so far, is that some of the members were very familiar with this idea, that the White House had been talking about this and increasingly interested in seeing it happen. And others were not so read in on it.
And this has actually been a topic of conversation in the Legislature in the last few weeks, maybe even a little more than a month – kind of idle conversation about, you know, “oh, I’ve heard that there might be some redistricting talk among Republicans.” And it was kind of dismissed as just that, as just a rumor.
But it really did have enough teeth and enough momentum in the last few days that this emergency meeting was called by Congressman McCaul. And the members that were at this meeting, as far as we know, all expressed skepticism about going forward with it.
And traditionally, if the delegation is not interested in doing this kind of redistricting or this kind effort, it wouldn’t happen. You try and protect your incumbents. But they are in a moment where President Trump has such a hold over the party that it’s very sensitive to come out in opposition to something that he wants.
And so it’s part of the reason why you don’t have really anyone talking publicly about this. So even though it had been bandied about quietly in the capital of Texas, it hadn’t really emerged as a story yet until this week.
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Now, we mentioned Texas isn’t due for new maps yet. These typically come after a decade of new census data. So what should folks know about what it would mean to redraw them early, especially considering, as you mentioned, the most recent maps are still being argued over?
Right. So there’s this case going on in El Paso right now in which organizations representing Black and Hispanic voters have sued over these maps. And they argue that the maps illegally disadvantage their communities.
And that’s being heard in a federal court at this moment. And that could also change how the maps look in Texas.
Wait, I mean, as you mentioned, we just wrapped up the session. The governor kind of got everything he wanted in this session.
So coming back for this… You’re hearing that could happen as soon as July here in Texas? Lawmakers gathering in Austin again to look at these maps?
I mean, that’s certainly what people are talking about among the legislators in Austin. Now, whether that’s an accurate date or something that people have just kind of told each other makes sense, we don’t really know at this point.
The governor, like I said, hasn’t made any comments on it. He did not comment to us in response to this story. But if they were to do new maps, it would take some time. They’d have to fight it out. And that’s something that would need to happen this summer, sooner than later.
And also, of course, you have the Democrats in the Legislature who last time around, when this was done in the mid-2000s under Tom DeLay, when Republicans in Texas were pushing for it, you had Democrats walk out and try and throw a wrench in the gears, at least to delay that process.
So that was a long, long drawn-out fight. And this would likely be a drawn out.
