It was with a certain sense of déjà vu, combined with not inconsiderable existential boredom, that I read headlines on Sunday declaring that a group of Democratic lawmakers had fled Texas. Naturally, the media framed it as high drama, and certainly the Republicans helped with their threats to arrest their opponents gone AWOL. But I suspected high jinks.

After all, the Democrats have done this before, and not that long ago. In 2021, for instance, they attempted to derail proposed legislation limiting early voting and banning drive-through voting by skedaddling to Washington DC. Democrats, being in the minority, can’t outvote Republicans. But as the rules require two-thirds of the 150-member Texas house to be present for a vote to take place, they can just… not show up.

There’s only one problem: you can’t stay in Washington DC forever. After the requisite shenanigans and posturing in 2021, the Democrats meekly returned home, cast their votes, and lost, as was fated to happen. This was a repeat of a similar performance Texas Democrats had put on in 2003, when a group of them fled the state to avoid a vote on redistricting that was predicted to cost them seats. That time, they hung out in Oklahoma before surrendering to the inevitable.

Once again, the reason for this latest exodus was redistricting. Governor Greg Abbott had called a special legislative session, and a vote was due on a redrawn electoral map which is set to create an additional five Republican seats at next year’s midterms. The legislature is also supposed to be voting on disaster relief to support the victims of last month’s catastrophic floods, but it seems that they will have to wait until the Democrats see fit to return home.

One entertaining detail is that the majority of the errant lawmakers are taking refuge in Illinois, where the most recent congressional redistricting left Democrats with 14 out of 17 Congressional seats. So egregious is the Illinois map that the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave it an “F” grade; even the late Hulk Hogan would have blushed to take part in such obvious kayfabe.

Redrawing maps to grant your side an unfair political advantage is a hallowed national tradition — the term “gerrymander” was coined when the US was the same age as Taylor Swift is today. It is thus hardly surprising that prominent Democratic governors such as Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul have suggested they should respond with some aggressive redistricting of their own. But this is easier said than done. In some states politicians do not control redistricting, and in the blue states where they do — such as New Mexico and Nevada — they have already “optimised” for Democratic votes.

And so the Texas lawmakers will enjoy their out-of-state escapade, give interviews to sympathetic journalists, post clips to social media, and do a little fundraising. Then they will return, cast their votes, lose, and Trump will get his five extra seats. And then we can all look forward to the next piece of theatre.

---

Daniel Kalder is an author based in Texas. Previously, he spent ten years living in the former Soviet bloc. His latest book, Dictator Literature, is published by Oneworld. He also writes on Substack: Thus Spake Daniel Kalder.

DanielKalder

---