Texans Rally Against “The Trump Takeover”

Thousands attended rallies nationwide, where community and labor leaders denounced the attempt to radically redraw the congressional districts of Texas

With another redistricting fight looming as the state’s second special session begins, thousands rallied in Texas to oppose what they called a Trump takeover.

There were over 5,000 attendees at a rally in front of the Capitol in Austin, where community and labor leaders denounced the attempt to radically redraw the congressional districts of Texas. 

Congressman Greg Casar, whose own district (TX-35) would lose almost all of Travis County, blasted what he called an illegal redistricting scheme. After calling Donald Trump the most corrupt president in United States History, Casar said Ken Paxton was “the most corrupt politician in Texas history,” and that the two are trying to pull off “the most corrupt bargain I’ve ever seen.”

Casar also spoke about the recent refusal of ICE to allow him to conduct his congressionally-authorized oversight of a detention facility outside Austin. According to Casar, family members of a detained constituent called him and told him that people were burning up inside T. Don Hutto Detention Center. But the center would not allow Casar or defense attorneys inside.

Casar continued to speak about rampant corruption, and the ways people (like the crowd in front of the Capitol) could fight back. To chants of “si se puede,” Casar introduced the Austin crowd to Dolores Huerta, the longtime labor rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez. Huerta said that both Abbott and Paxton were violating not only their oath to the Constitution, but to the Constitution of the state of Texas in their pursuit of these new congressional maps. She also noted the recent moves from California’s governor to introduce a special election that would allow the nation’s largest state to redraw their own maps.

Up I-35 in Dallas, speakers and attendees gathered in front of Friendship-West Baptist Church. There, State Senator Royce West, a member of the Democratic Senate Caucus that left the floor to protest that chamber’s redistricting bill, likened the political fight to a boxing match. He said that Democrats won round one thanks to the quorum break by Texas House Democrats, but he warned this was still “a twelve-round match.” 

While many Texas House Democrats have started to trickle back into Texas, there are still many out of state. Several House members attended the Stop the Trump Takeover Rally in Chicago. According to the AFL-CIO, there were over 300 rallies around the country in 43 states and Washington D.C.