Trump’s Texas Power Grab

In a dramatic act of protest on Sunday, Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives began to flee the state. It is a last-ditch attempt to stop President Trump and Texas Republicans from adopting an aggressively redrawn congressional map that would eliminate Democratic seats — and could help lock in a Republican majority in next year’s elections.

Shane Goldmacher, a Times political correspondent, explains this new chapter in the era of unvarnished partisan warfare.

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The redrawn map, unveiled by Texas Republicans and pushed by Mr. Trump, puts areas of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio that have incumbent Democrats into districts that would now favor Republicans.
   
• “We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Gene Wu, a state representative from Houston and the chair of the Democratic caucus in the Texas House, said in a statement Sunday.

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