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It’s a serious moment; we all get that. But sometimes we just need to breathe a little life into it. That’s why California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office account imitating Donald Trump on X felt pretty life-giving.
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Newsom has asked state legislators to put proposed new congressional maps on the ballot in a special election this November, as a counter to Republican redistricting efforts in Texas, which were presented as an attempt to obtain more safe seats in the House ahead of Democrats’ expected gains in the midterm elections. Republicans didn’t even try to disguise it, with President Trump leading the charge and saying he believed they could get five more seats out of Texas. Newsom’s press office account tweeted, “Donald Trump does not play fair! So California will fight back — to make it fair for voters all across this country.”
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So many times in the Trump era, Democrats—trying to take the high ground—end up bringing a knife to a gun fight. Sometimes they are accused of showing up with nothing more than a glass of lemonade. It’s challenging to be the adults in the room, the ones who try to live by the Constitution and follow the law, when the other side has abandoned any pretense of fair play.
Take, for example, the fight for voting rights. Ahead of the 2016 election, Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina, who was up for reelection, tried to change his state’s rules for his own benefit. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his blatant efforts at voter suppression, writing, “The asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the State’s true motivation. ‘In essence, … the State took away [minority voters’] opportunity because [they] were about to exercise it. … This bears the mark of intentional discrimination.’” The court overruled the new laws McCrory had signed in an effort to restrict access to the right to vote, holding that they targeted African-Americans with “almost surgical precision” and “discriminatory intent.”
Despite the Justice Department’s successful challenge—decided months ahead of the election—McCrory and the Republican party still made it more difficult for many Democrats to vote. And when McCrory lost by more than ten thousand votes, instead of conceding, he made false claims of voter fraud to try to hold on to the office. Rather than giving his successor, Roy Cooper, a smooth transition, McCrory signed two bills designed to strip Cooper of powers the governor has traditionally held over state election boards. By all accounts, McCrory played dirty politics.
Texas Democrat Greg Casar recently accused his party of bringing a butter knife to a gunfight when Trump called for redistricting, which Texas’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott seemed eager to deliver. Then Casar got a pleasant surprise. Texas Democrats decided to fight back in an unorthodox manner by leaving the state to deprive Texas House Republicans of the quorum they would need to vote on the measure to redraw the state’s congressional maps.
Not everyone was sure it was the right thing to do at first. Democrats, as a party, believe in following the rules. But there was a higher rule at work here: the principle that every American citizen should be able to exercise their right to vote. Texas legislators realized the only way to do the job their constituents had elected them to do was to use fresh tactics to combat yet another effort by Republicans to deprive them of their rights.
The first time I had a serious conversation about the need for Democrats to respond in kind was with Marc Elias. It was something of a gut punch, because while I hated the idea of Democrats responding to Texas by offering their own plans to redistrict and gerrymander in California, I understood it was a practical necessity. If Republicans are able to rearrange the maps so they have perpetual control of Congress, democracy would be lost.
We are now at a crossroads where Democrats understand we cannot sit back and let democracy be unraveled. And that is a good thing. It is the fight so many of us have been hoping for. It’s not a happy moment, but it’s a necessary one. And as long as we do it with an understanding of why we are doing it—that it is, and must always be, about protecting voting rights—I believe we will come out okay.
Today, former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder held a call with Texas Democrats, who are still in absentia. In a statement, an Obama spokesperson said the former president “lauded their fight against the Republican efforts to enact an even more egregious gerrymander in Texas ahead of the midterms.” The spokesperson continued that Obama “made clear that they are part of a bigger effort to protect free and fair elections and commended them for inspiring others with their actions.”
We cannot let MAGA take away our ability to determine the outcome of American elections. Voters must be free to choose their elected officials; it is not the job of politicians to select their voters. Democrats are finally fighting to win, not just to enter the fray. The Supreme Court has said it will not interfere with political gerrymanders, no matter how offensive it is to democracy—a decision of questionable wisdom. But when Republicans engage in blatant efforts to suppress the vote, as they are in Texas and they are preparing to do elsewhere ahead of 2026, Democrats must stand up for democracy. They’re doing that now.
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