Colorado Springs, Colorado. – While Texas Republicans advance with a plan to re -draw Maps from Congress before planned, many governors are increasingly dealing with a problem that they did not believe they would have to face until the end of the decade.
The redistribution effort of non -programmed districts of Texas, which Republicans hope they can help protect their narrow majority of the camera during the middle of the period of next year, has had a domino effect, with governors from all over the country that float the possibility of following their example to add or counteract or the plan, depending on their party affiliation.
At the summer meeting of the Bipartisan Association of National Governors at Colorado Springs, the Democrats largely condemned the efforts in Texas while encouraging the efforts of their own party members in other states.
“It is deplorable,” said New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, in an interview outside the summit, referring to the attempt of Texas Republicans.
When it came to threats from democratic governments. Gavin Newsom from California and Kathy Hochul in New York to move forward with the plans to draw the lines of Congress in their states, Murphy added: “I don’t think we have an option.”
“If these games are going to play, we will have to be equally aggressive,” Murphy said, adding that “we cannot bring a knife to a shooting.”
When asked if he would tolerate a redistribution effort of districts in New Jersey, Murphy said “all options are on the table in New Jersey,” although he acknowledged that there were important obstacles to do so.
“I’m afraid there are significant constitutional limitations here in our account [state] Constitution, ”he said. In New Jersey, as in many other states, an independent commission supervises the redistribution of districts.
“But we are seeing all the options, and we have that, as Democrats. If this is the way the other boys are going, we have to respond strongly,” Murphy said. “We have no choice.”
Hawai’s Democratic governor, Josh Green, called the actions of “really sinister”, “inconceivable” and “completely little ethical” republicans, and asked his fellow democratic governors to “fight against fire with fire.”
“It is an obvious attempt to steal elections,” Green said, although he also said that “the Democratic Party cannot wait and see what happens.”
“It is very unfortunate, because two errors do not make the right thing. But we cannot allow one of the parties to break the rules and then consistently in the future breaks more rules,” he added.
“It is becoming a knife fight,” Green said.
Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, initiated a special legislative session on Monday, and Congress redistributed one of the issues on the list of pending tasks of legislators.
The New York Times reported last month that the members of Trump’s political operation had urged Texas Republicans to draw their maps again before the partial people of 2026. And Trump himself has publicly praised the efforts, urging Texas legislators to take measures that would help the Republican party to win five seats in the house. Republicans currently control 25 of the 38 districts of the Texas Congress.
The districts redistribution process generally occurs at the beginning of each new decade, when there are new census data available. The current Texas maps were drawn in 2021, after the 2020 census, although they are still being freed in court.
The republican effort in Texas has led some Democrats to defend themselves by threatening their own schemes of redistribution of districts of the decade. The highlight, Newsom, a 2028 presidential contributor potential, has raised the idea of re -drawing California maps. But that effort would come with great obstacles: an independent commission controls the process of redistribution of districts in California, not the governor.
On Thursday, Hochul also entered the fray, answering a question about the redistribution of districts in New York saying: “All are fair in love and war,” according to Politico. Although he did not promise an action, he added that “he would look closely at” the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, Dn.Y.
In other places, the Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, answered a question about whether his status should follow the redistribution of districts to counteract Texas’s impulse by accusing Republicans to try to “deceive” before half of the intermediate clues. And a spokesman for Maryland’s Democratic governor, Wes Moore, told the New York Times this week that “he will continue to evaluate all the options.”
On the other side of the hall, a few days after the State Supreme Court confirmed the new map of the State Congress, the Republican governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, said that “there may be more defects that must be remedied.” He added that the changes of the population in the state since the census has led him to believe that the State is “malignant” and that “it would be appropriate to make a redistribution of districts here in the mid -decade.”
And in Ohio, state legislators must draw new Maps of Congress before 2026 because their current lines approved without bipartisan support. Republicans control 10 of the 15 seats of Ohio’s House of Representatives.
Other democratic leaders of the NGA did not urge fellow governors of their party to advance with their own redistribution plans.
“Texas Republicans would really call not to give in to temptation and continue with the map that they themselves drawn that benefit the Republicans in the Texas delegation and continue with that until the period of redistribution of normal districts occurs at the end of the decade,” said Colorado Jared Polis governor in an interview. In Colorado, as in California, the redistribution efforts of districts are supervised by an independent commission.
Meanwhile, some Republicans of the NGA expressed their discontent with the redistribution threats of districts of both parties.
“I will be perfectly honest. I only think about it once every 10 years,” said the governor of Utah’s health parta, Spencer Cox, in an interview. “Obviously, there are concerns about Gerrymandering, and both parties are doing it, you know, nobody has clean hands.”
“I don’t love. I would like there to be a better way. I would like there to be a non -partisan form. Many states have tried,” Cox added.
The former governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, a Republican, said he would refuse to condemn Texas’ efforts, although he himself helped Colorado to advance in his own independent district redistribution commission.
“While so many democratic states continue to redistribute the outdated form, the Republican states will also do. So I have no criticism for Texas, since they are working within the same rules that have governed so many states, Democrats and Republicans, in the past,” Owens said. He added that his own approach, if he were still governor, “would be trying to redirect bipartisously.”
