This map also dismantles coalition districts flagged by the United States Department of Justice, including Texas’s Ninth Congressional District, Texas’s Eighteenth Congressional District, Texas’s Twenty-ninth Congressional District, and Texas’s Thirty-third Congressional District—each previously built around multiracial voter coalitions.

🏃‍♂️ Texas Democrats Flee the State to Block the Vote

In a rare quorum-denial tactic, more than fifty members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus boarded buses and planes to Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts—denying Republicans the two-thirds attendance required to pass legislation.

• Funding for these flights and accommodations was reportedly provided by infamous Democratic donor, billionaire philanthropist George Soros and former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke.

• Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate and return the legislators.

• Civil arrest warrants were issued, and each absent member faces fines of $500 per day.

• Texas Rangers opened investigations into possible bribery and misconduct by outside groups that funded the lawmakers’ travel.

• Attorney General Ken Paxton filed suit at the Texas Supreme Court seeking to declare seats vacant if members miss thirty consecutive legislative days without excuse.

🕵️ Federal Escalation: President Trump and the FBI Step In

President Donald J. Trump publicly endorsed the Texas plan and urged the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist state authorities in returning the absentee legislators.

“You can’t just sit it out. You have to go back. You have to fight it out. That’s what elections are all about.” — President Donald J. Trump

Senator John Cornyn formally asked FBI Director Kash Patel to deploy agents to Texas. Legal experts warn that federal intervention in a state-legislative quorum dispute could raise unprecedented constitutional and civil liberties questions.

🗺️ County-Level Breakdown: Texas’s First Congressional District (East Texas)

📍 Current Counties (Representative Nathaniel Moran, Republican of Tyler)

• Bowie (partial)

• Camp

• Cass

• Franklin

• Gregg

• Harrison

• Marion

• Morris

• Panola

• Rusk

• Sabine

• San Augustine

• Shelby

• Smith

• Titus

• Upshur

• Red River (partial)

🔄 Proposed Map Changes

• Removed Counties: Morris, Titus, Franklin, Camp, Upshur

• Added Counties: Cherokee, Nacogdoches

• Reassigned Portions: Red River and Bowie counties move to Texas’s Fourth Congressional District

📍 Hopkins County: New District, New Representation

Hopkins County, previously part of Texas’s Fourth Congressional District—represented by Representative Pat Fallon, Republican of Sherman—will now be part of a newly drawn Texas’s Third Congressional District.

This newly drawn district includes:

• Hopkins County

• Delta County

• Morris County

• Franklin County

• Titus County

• Parts of Hunt County

• Parts of Collin County

Outgoing Representative: Representative Pat Fallon (Republican of Sherman, Texas’s Fourth Congressional District) Incoming Representative: Representative Keith Self (Republican of McKinney, Texas’s Third Congressional District)

While Representative Self remains the incumbent, the new configuration introduces a more balanced mix of urban-suburban voters alongside rural conservatives—making competitive races likelier in future elections.

🌊 California Fires Back

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a bold counteroffensive:

• He will bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission via emergency executive order.

• His administration proposes a new map that could eliminate up to five Republican-held seats, including those of Representatives Kevin Kiley, Ken Calvert, David Valadao, and Darrell Issa.

• A special statewide referendum is planned for November 4, 2025, to ratify the new boundaries.

• Newsom hosted Texas Democrats in Sacramento, vowing to “fight fire with fire” against partisan gerrymandering.

Other Democratic governors in Illinois, New York, and Maryland are exploring similar retaliatory redistricting measures.

🧨 What’s Next?

• The Texas House reconvenes on Monday, August 11 at 3:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

• The 30-day special session ends August 20, but Governor Abbott can call additional sessions until the map passes.

• Expect a barrage of lawsuits challenging potential Voting Rights Act violations and federal Hatch Act concerns.

📣 To be Continued

This redistricting standoff has morphed into a full-blown national crisis, with federal law enforcement enmeshed, blue-state tit-for-tat countermeasures, and constitutional might-makes-right questions looming large. Stay tuned for detailed coverage and analysis following Monday’s session—where the fate of Texas representation, and potentially the balance of power in Congress, will be on the line.

One of my predecessors is said to have observed that in making his decisions he had to operate like a football quarterback — he could not very well call the next play until he saw how the last play turned out. Well, that may be a good way to run a football team, but in these days it is no way to run a government.

– Address at the Cow Palace on Accepting the Nomination of the Republican National Convention, 8/23/56