Democrats Use TV Appearances To Accuse Republicans Of Cheating To Hold Power

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 26: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) speaks during a hearing with the Subcommittee on Delivering On Government Efficiency in the U.S. Capitol on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. The House Oversight Subcommittee held the hearing to hear from witnesses on U.S. foreign aid. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) believes Democrats should be in control of the House of Representatives, not Republicans, and she says the GOP is “stealing seats to keep power, and that’s how we ended up with Speaker Johnson instead of Speaker Jeffries.” In an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, Crockett said Republicans “can’t win fair, so they cheat.”

Crockett, who represents Texas’ 30th Congressional District, has accused Republicans of “trying to gut our democracy” by redrawing district maps to “erase 5 Democratic seats.” The redistricting fight in Texas has led Democrats in California to explore their own re-mapping effort, designed to replace at least five GOP seats with Democrats, in effect countering the anticipated losses in Texas.

‘This is not a Texas problem’

On MSNBC’s All In, Velshi said the district battle in Texas could be the beginning of a nationwide effort by Republicans to hold the House in the mid-term elections, in an effort to keep power despite President Trump’s low approval ratings and the hostile reactions from voters at town hall meetings across the country–including districts solidly held by Republicans.

Crockett noted that once Republicans gained a majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, legislators decided to “redraw the lines again, and instead of that state being 7-7, which sounds like how that state has been historically voting, instead, now, the Congressional delegation is 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats. They took 3 seats away from us,” three seats that could have tipped the balance of power in Congress.

‘When Trump calls, they say, ‘yes sir, right away, sir. Happy to lick your boot, sir’

Among the high-profile Democrats wading into the Texas remapping fight is Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a presumed 2028 presidential candidate, who said Tuesday that “Donald Trump’s trying to steal five seats from the people of the country, not just the people of Texas.”

Pritzker also vowed to protect 30 Texas Democrats who left their state for Illinois in an effort to block a GOP vote on the redistricting plan by leaving the legislature short of the quorum that’s necessary in order to hold votes. “Texas law enforcement officers have no authority to hunt down and make arrests of Texas legislators in Illinois based on a civil arrest warrant issued by the Texas House.”

Asked by CBS’ The Late Show host Stephen Colbert–who pulled out a map of Congressional districts in Illinois–if Texas wasn’t unique in its effort to draw bizarre boundaries in an effort to tilt districts toward one party or the other, Pritzker said “we handed it over to a kindergarten class and let them decide.”

Joking aside, the governor–whose attacks on Donald Trump have been frequent and personal–said he wouldn’t rule out even more re-mapping in an effort to counter the GOP effort in Texas. “It’s possible. I’ve said everything is on the table. We’ve gotta fight fire with fire.”

Pritzker said while all states have had redistricting efforts that have produced some strange maps, the effort in Texas is “extraordinarily rare” as the Republican effort would–Democrats believe–violate Federal law by disenfranchising minority voters.

“The way they are doing it is taking voting rights away from Black and Brown people,” he told Colbert. “They are literally obliterating districts that were written according to the Voting Rights Act. So this is going to end up in court if they are actually able to do it.”

Another potential 2028 candidate, California Governor Gavin Newsom, vowed that “California is about to get a whole lot bluer” thanks to Donald Trump. Newsom told YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella that districts in his state were drawn by an independent redistricting commission, saying “I can’t stand these gerrymandered districts.”

But Newsom said if Republicans won’t join California in handing over district lines to independent, fair efforts, his party needs to react. “Democrats can’t just sit there and act holier than thou and watch this democracy be completely degraded.”