Rep. James Talarico Talks Texas Redistricting Efforts

Texas Democratic lawmakers said they left the state in an effort to temporarily block Republicans from redrawing its congressional maps — a redistricting initiative pushed by President Donald Trump to help retain GOP control of the US House of Representatives in the midterms. State Rep. James Talarico (D) Texas speaks that with Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news Now.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just moments ago, President Trump commented on the ongoing situation
in Texas regarding the Democrats who fled the state to
avert redistricting efforts. Take a listen.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Well, I think they've abandoned the state. Nobody's seen anything
like it, even though they've done it twice before, and
in a certain way, it almost looks like they've abandoned
the state. It looks very bad.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, go ahead, please get involved. Should the FBI get involved, well,
they may have to. They may have to. Joining us
now for more here on Balance of Power on Bloomberg
TV and Radio is Democratic Texas State Representative James Tallerico.
Welcome back to Balance of Power. Representative. It's good to
have you. The other thing we heard from the President
is that Democrats did this redistricting first. That was his

(00:48):
response when questioned about what's happening in Texas. Given the
rhetoric we are hearing from other blue state governors, be
it Kathy Hochel or Gavin Newsom, does the President have
a point or Democrats kind of counteract your argument that
what Texas is doing is wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, not at all. Typically state legislatures, whether they're in
blue states or red states, they adjust district boundaries at
the beginning of the decade, and yes, they jerrymanders. Sometimes
Democrats do it, sometimes Republicans do it. It is wrong
in either instance because politicians shouldn't be picking their voters.
Voters should be picking their politicians. But what's happening here

(01:24):
is a whole nother level. The President of the United States,
the most powerful man in the country, requested that Texas
Republicans find him five more congressional seats, and so now
they are redrawing the maps they just drew in twenty
twenty one to rig the next election for him, to
insulate him from public accountability. And that's a fundamental disruption

(01:47):
to the democratic process. If the president wanted to campaign
on his policies and try to win base on the
maps that we all set in twenty twenty one, that
would be fine. That's how this process is supposed to work.
But that's not what's happening. The President is trying to
execute a power grab in the state of Texas, and
we will not let him cheat in order to hold
onto power.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Reptel Rico, it's good to have you back. On Bloomberg.
We spoke with your colleague and the Senate yesterday, Chris Turner.
I'm sorry State Rep. Chris Turner, another Democrat who has
fled I believe to the same city that you did.
To try to make a point here, but we also
kind of acknowledge the fact that this really will not
change the outcome of this effort because the governor can
continue to set special sessions, and mister Turner learned that

(02:31):
just a few years ago in the last attempt at redistricting.
I think it was five weeks before everybody came back
and this took place at last. What is the real
purpose of you leaving Texas? Is it to publicize what's happening,
Is it to raise money around it? Or both?

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, I actually want to push back on the idea
that our twenty twenty one quorum break was a failure.
It wasn't. And I also want to clarify that it
wasn't over redistricting. It was over a voter suppression bill
that would have made it harder to vote in the
state of Texas. Texas is one of the hardest places
to vote in the entire country, and so we broke
quorum and we drew national attention, a national spotlight on

(03:10):
that voter suppression effort, and that spotlight convinced Texas Republicans
to take the worst parts out of that bill. A
ban on souls to the polls, which is Sunday morning voting,
which African American churches traditionally use to get their congregants
out to vote. Also a provision that would have allowed
Republican politicians to overturn election results they didn't like. And

(03:32):
both of those parts were taken out because of our
quorum break. So it is a tool in the toolbox
of the minority for when the majority oversteps their constitutional duties.
And so I'm hoping that this quorum break can do
the same thing by shining a national and now international
spotlight on this power grab in Texas. We're hoping our
Republican colleagues will walk back from the brink. I hope

(03:54):
we can play by the same rules that we set
in twenty twenty one and not cheat in the middle
of the game. I mean by mid decade redistricting, they
are essentially like the team coming out of halftime during
a football game that's ahead and they say they want
to change the rules for the second half so they
can win the game. That's cheating, plain and simple. If
they're going to cheat, we're not going to play.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Representative. We just heard from President Trump in response to
the call from Republican Senator John cornyin of Texas to
potentially get the FBI involved in the cases of lawmakers
like yourself, who will flood the state of Texas to
execute this quorum break. What is your reaction to that, sir.
What happens if the FBI gets involved.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, it's completely consistent with this rigged map. They are
trying to rob Texans, Democrats, independents, and Republicans from their
god given right to pick the representatives of their choice.
And now Donald Trump and Greg Abbott and Ken Paxson
are talking about removing or arresting public officials, the people's representatives,

(04:58):
from their offices. And so this is a page out
of the authoritarian playbook that we've seen in other countries.
And it should be alarming to all of us, not
just Democrats, but Republicans and independence too, not just elected
officials but journalists too. This is a five alarm fire
in a democratic system, and we all need to act
with the urgency that this moment demands.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Do you expect that someone will serve a warrant on
behalf of the governor or the FBI try to extradite
you representative. What scenarios have you mapped out based on
what you've.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Heard so far. Well, I think I can speak for
myself and my colleagues when I say that we're not
very worried about the consequences we may face, whether they
are arrest or financial fines, or even removal from office,
because we have right on our side. We are part
of a long American tradition of looking bullies in the eye,

(05:51):
of speaking truth to power, of civil disobedience, of good trouble.
That is how this democracy was forged, and we are
participating in that tradition, and we're proud to do it.
When Donald Trump asked Georgia Republicans to find him eleven
thousand votes after he lost the twenty twenty election, those
Republicans said, no, sir. But when Donald Trump asked Texas

(06:11):
Republicans to find him five more seats in Congress in
the middle of the decade, they said, how about Thursday?
And so that's why my Democratic colleagues and I had
to take a stand again, not just for our party,
but for all Americans.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Democratic Texas State Rep. James tall Rico, we thank you
for returning and joining our conversation here on Bloomberg