In what's really a public relations move, the US Democratic Party has lifted the fight for redistricting in Texas up to a national level with hope it will also lift the party's fundraising income and the mood of supporters as well.
What they'd rather not talk about is their real fear that the five extra US House seats that could be gained from Texas' efforts really could greatly affect the Dems' abilities to take back the House in next year's midterms.
Both parties are raising money on their handling of the controversy, but Democrats seem to be spinning a misleading story of how they'll fight back against the Lone Star State.
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he has the right to continue calling special sessions of the Legislature until all Democrats show up for duty -- even if that takes years -- and with this stalemate so far comes lots of fundraising for both parties.
"I'm authorized to call a special session every 30 days, it lasts 30 days, then I'm going to call another one and another one and another one -- and if they show back up in Texas they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol -- and if they want to evade that arrest they'll have to stay out of the state of Texas for literally years," Gov. Abbott told Fox News on Sunday morning.
It's all about an effort to redraw Texas congressional district maps, in which drawing new boundaries can favor one party or another, in this case the GOP -- an effort that was seemingly local, of interest mostly to people in Texas -- but Democrat leaders, organizers and fundraisers saw an opportunity to raise money (maybe big money!) while also making political points by raising national awareness of Texas' redistricting efforts and framing it as part of President Donald Trump's agenda.
Much of their anti-Trump efforts are organized around a "resistance" narrative in which Democrats are fighting against what they mistakenly, and without evidence, call President Trump's "fascism," and because the President has been egging on the Texas redistricting efforts, Democrats have tied Texas and Trump together as part of the narrative that Democrats are "resisting" Texas and Trump's "fascism."
Of course, Mr. Trump is not "behind" the efforts to redraw congressional districts in Texas or anywhere else, he's simply encouraging it because it would help him and his agenda, so the connection between Trump and Texas is flimsy, and fascism? There are those who believe that Democrats themselves moved America closer to authoritarianism under President Joe Biden than Republicans ever have.
Still, the resistance-movement myths are selling to Democrat donors and supporters, even as the Texans who fled the state to temporarily stop redistricting are meeting with national figures such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in between whiling away their hours in exile while relaxing in "free" hotel rooms.
But the public relations campaign seems strained since Democrats will have a difficult time winning the battle they've set -- redistricting their own states to offset the five Republican seats to be yielded by the Texas initiative may be quite hard to pull off.
And despite their tough talk to the contrary, it will be very hard for California and New York to redistrict, since there are few Republican congressional seats to be gerrymandered, according to Politico, which also points out that the "fire with fire" attitude of Democrats reflects a 180-degree change from their anti-gerrymandering stance just a year ago.
At a fundraising stop in Fort Worth on Saturday, Texas Democrat organizer and perennial office-seeker Robert "Beto" O'Rourke said his party needs to start redistricting right away, every state needs to get involved, rather than waiting for Texas to get its effort off the ground.
As Politico points out, the false hubris reveals just how truly threatened Democrats feel by the Texas effort.