Texas Democrats turned a public hearing by a state legislative committee on redistricting into a party event on Saturday at the University of Houston.
The committee was set to start hearing public testimony at 11 am but Democrats delayed the start by chastising committee leadership over the lack of a public plan on exactly how redistricting will be accomplished, with Houston-area Representative Sylvia Garcia saying "My answer is hell no, we don't need to be doing this."
Democrats say they're outraged that the leadership in the Texas legislature wants to redraw districts, even as Democrats are desperate to do their own redistricting in California, New York and Maryland.
The committee set aside five hours to hear public testimony limited to two minutes per speaker, but the start was delayed by an hour's discourse on whether the hearings made any difference, with House Democratic Caucus Chairman Gene Wu concluding, "We do not have any purpose in being here," even though hundreds of people had signed up to speak before the committee.
The committee listened to five hours of public comments, during which Rep. Garcia said the reason the committee was in Houston was because President Donald Trump is asking for the redistricting.
Ms. Garcia said the committee should be back in Austin working to provide relief to the victims of Hill Country (which is already being worked on by a different committee), adding "Instead, we're here today playing political games to appease the felon in the White House."
Many Democrats in the legislature have said they'll do no other legislative work until relief for flood victims is finished, which Republicans characterize as a virtue-signaling way to obstruct the passing of laws called for by the Governor.