Just hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton scored a legal victory against a political action committee led by Beto O’Rourke, the two-time failed statewide candidate called on Democrats to declare all-out war over redistricting.
O’Rourke’s activist group, Powered by People, has openly boasted about supporting active Texas Democrats who fled the state to block several key Republican-backed legislative measures, including crucial aid for flood victims and a vote on redrawing the state’s congressional maps. The House cannot proceed with the legislation without a two-thirds quorum.
During a Powered by People rally in Fort Worth on Saturday, O’Rourke launched into a profanity-laced tirade, urging Democrat-led states to delay as many Republican-controlled district redistricting efforts as possible.
“We are not going to let him stop us. Are you with me on that? Andele! It also means, as Mark was saying earlier, we don’t await the punch thrown by these would-be fascists to land. We punch first, and we punch harder,” O’Rourke ranted in what was yet another Democrat calling for violence. [see video below]
“We want California, and New Jersey, and Illinois, and Maryland, and every other state where the Democrats hold the Governor’s Mansion, the Assembly, and the State Senate to redraw their congressional districts now, not wait for Texas to move first, to maximize Democratic Party advantage,” he said — without, of course, mentioning that those states and others like California long ago redrew their districts to “maximize” Democrats and minimize their Republican residents.
He then reiterated that Democrats should pursue such a strategy at all costs. “Listen, you may say to yourself, well, those aren’t the rules. There are no refs in this game. F**k the rules. We are going to win whatever it takes. We’re going to take this to them in every way that we can,” he said.
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Again, O’Rourke’s strategy may face challenges, as several of the states he referenced have already implemented congressional maps that favor Democrats. For example, in Illinois during the 2024 election, Republican candidates secured 46 percent of the vote but only hold 3 of the 17 congressional seats, highlighting the impact of gerrymandering on electoral outcomes.
In the 2024 U.S. House elections in California, Republican candidates collectively received over 40 percent of the popular vote across the state’s 52 congressional districts, according to national vote share data. However, despite this significant share of the vote, Republicans hold only nine of the 52 seats—equating to just 17 percent of the available congressional seats in California.