{"id":45632,"date":"2025-08-03T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45632"},"modified":"2025-08-03T21:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:25:17","slug":"texas-legislator-james-talarico-on-democratic-walkout-its-time-to-fight-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45632","title":{"rendered":"Texas legislator James Talarico on Democratic walkout: \u2018It\u2019s time to fight back\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) urged his party to \u201cfight back\u201d on Sunday as Democratic legislators left the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing House maps that would hand the GOP five extra pickup opportunities<\/u><\/a> before the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to break quorum and stop Trump\u2019s redistricting power grab. Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he\u2019ll have to come through us,\u201d Talarico said in a thread on the social platform X<\/u><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s time to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 elections. If this power grab succeeds, they will hang on to power without any accountability from the voters. But Texas Democrats are fighting back,\u201d he added in a video posted on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic legislator, who has drawn attention recently after being featured on Joe Rogan\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>podcast, told NewsNation\u2019s \u201cThe Hill\u201d<\/u><\/a> show last week that President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) \u201care trying to rig the next election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know that sounds dramatic, but \u2026 now by redrawing the political maps, they\u2019re trying to insulate themselves from the will of the voters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talarico told KXAN<\/u><\/a> late last week that he was open to breaking quorum to block the redistricting effort, but he called such a move a \u201clast resort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBreaking quorum is an extreme step, and it\u2019s not something that should be taken lightly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas state House Democrats said Sunday they were denying<\/u><\/a> Republicans a quorum, or the least amount of lawmakers needed present in order to conduct legislative business, after a state House panel over the weekend advanced proposed congressional maps<\/u><\/a> aiming to make Texas\u2019s district lines even friendlier to Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu on Sunday accused Republicans of \u201cusing an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal,\u201d Wu added in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re leaving the state, breaking quorum and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election. We are not fighting for the Democratic Party. We are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher. We have to take a stand,\u201d Talarico said Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill has reached out to the White House and the Texas Republican Party for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) urged his party to \u201cfight back\u201d on Sunday as Democratic legislators left the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing House maps that would hand the GOP five extra pickup opportunities before the 2026 midterms. \u201cMy Democratic colleagues and I just left the state of Texas to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":45633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2277,34210,1378,1298],"class_list":["post-45632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-democrat","tag-james-talarico","tag-strike","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45634,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45632\/revisions\/45634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}