In Trump's redistricting push, Democrats find an aggressive identity and progressives are on board

Then multiple Democratic governors promised new districts in their own states to neutralize potential Republican gains in Washington. Their counter has been buoyed by national fundraising, media blitzes and public demonstrations, including rallies scheduled around the country Saturday.

“For everyone that’s been asking, ‘Where are the Democrats?’ -- well, here they are," said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, one of several Democrats who could be ousted under her state's new maps. "For everyone who’s been asking, ‘Where is the fight?’ – well, here it is.”

There is no guarantee Democrats can prevent the Republican-powered redistricting, just as Democrats on Capitol Hill have not been able to stop Trump’s moves. But it’s a notable turn for a party that, by its own leaders’ admissions, has honored conventional rules and bypassed bare-knuckled tactics.

So far, progressive and establishment Democrats are aligned, uniting what has often been a fragmented opposition since Republicans led by Trump took control of the federal government with their election sweep in November. Leaders on the left say the approach gives them a more effective way to confront him. They can challenge his redistricting ploy with tangible moves as they also push back against the Republicans' tax and spending law and press the case that he is shredding American democracy.

“We’ve been imploring Democrats where they have power on the state and local level to flex that power,” said Maurice Mitchell, who leads the Working Families Party at the left flank of mainstream U.S. politics. “There’s been this overwrought talk about fighters and largely performative actions to suggest that they’re in the fight.”

This time, he said, Democrats are “taking real risks in protecting all of our rights” against “an authoritarian president who only understands the fight.”

Pairing fiery talk with action

Texas made sense for Republicans as the place to start a redistricting scuffle. They dominate the Statehouse, and Gov. Greg Abbott is a Trump loyalist.

But when the president's allies announced a new political map intended to send five more Republicans to the U.S. House, state Democratic representatives fled Texas, denying the GOP the numbers to conduct business in the Legislature and approve the reworked districts.

Those legislators surfaced in Illinois, New York, California and elsewhere, joined by governors, senators, state party chairs, other states' legislators and activists. All promised action. The response was Trumpian.

Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York welcomed Texas Democrats and pledged retaliatory redistricting. Pritzker mocked Abbott as a lackey who says “yes, sir” to Trump orders. Hochul dismissed Texas Republicans as “lawbreaking cowboys.” Newsom’s press office directed all-caps social media posts at Trump, mimicking his signature sign off: “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

U.S. Rep. Al Green, another Texas Democrat who could lose his seat, called Trump “egomaniacal.” Yet many Democrats also claimed moral high ground, comparing their cause to the Civil Rights Movement.

State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., invoked another Texas Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson, who was “willing to stand up and fight” for civil rights laws in the 1960s. Then, with Texas bravado, Romero reached further into history: “We’re asking for help, maybe just as they did back in the days of the Alamo.”

‘Whatever it takes'

A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 15% of Democrats’ own voters described the party using words like “weak” or “apathetic.” An additional 10% called it “ineffective” or “disorganized.”

Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who is raising money to support Texas Democrats, has encouraged Democratic-run statehouses to redraw districts now rather than wait for GOP states to act. On Friday, California Democrats released a plan that would give the party an additional five U.S. House seats. It would require voter approval in a November election.

“Maximize Democratic Party advantage,” O’Rourke said at a recent rally. “You may say to yourself, ‘Well, those aren’t the rules.’ There are no refs in this game. F--- the rules. ... Whatever it takes.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin acknowledged the shift.

“This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to a knife fight,” he said.

Andrew O’Neill, an executive at the progressive group Indivisible, contrasted that response with the record-long speeches by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. and the Democratic leader of the U.S. House, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, in eviscerating Trump and his package of tax breaks and spending cuts. The left “had its hair on fire” cheering those moments, O’Neill recalled, but were “left even more frustrated in the aftermath.”

Trump still secured tax cuts for the wealthy, accelerated deportations and cut safety net programs, just as some of his controversial nominees were confirmed over vocal Democratic opposition.

“Now,” O’Neill said, “there is some marriage of the rhetoric we’ve been seeing since Trump’s inauguration with some actual action.”

O’Neill looked back wistfully to the decision by Senate Democrats not to eliminate the filibuster “when our side had the trifecta,” so a simple majority could pass major legislation. Democratic President Joe Biden's attorney general, Merrick Garland, he said, was too timid in prosecuting Trump and top associates over the Capitol riot.

In 2016, Democratic President Barack Obama opted against hardball as the Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, refused to consider Obama's nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court.

“These unspoken rules of propriety, especially on the Democratic side, have created the conditions” that enabled Trump, Mitchell said.

Fighting on all fronts

Even on redistricting, Democrats would have to ignore their previous good-government efforts and bypass independent commissions that draw boundaries in several states, including California.

Party leaders and activists rationalize that the broader fights tie together piecemeal skirmishes that may not, by themselves, sway voters.

Arguing that Trump diminishes democracy stirs people who already support Democrats, O’Neill said. By contrast, he said, the GOP “power grab,” can be connected to unpopular policies that affect voters' lives.

Green noted that Trump’s big package bill cleared the Senate “by one vote” and the House by a few, demonstrating why redistricting matters.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said Democrats must make unseemly, short-term power plays so they can later pass legislation that “bans gerrymandering nationwide ... bans super PACs (political action committees) and gets rid of that kind of big money and special interest that helped get us to this place.” U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, added that a Democratic majority would wield subpoena power over Trump's administration.

In the meantime, said U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, voters are grasping a stark reality.

“They say, ‘Well, I don’t know. Politics doesn’t affect me,'” she said of constituents she meets. “I say, ‘Honey, it does’ If you don’t do politics, politics will do you.'”