Beto O’Rourke is back in the headlines, and once again it is for all the wrong reasons. Just hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton notched a legal victory against his political action committee, Powered by People, the failed Senate and gubernatorial candidate called for what he described as “all-out war” over congressional redistricting.
O’Rourke’s group has openly bragged about funding Democrat lawmakers who fled Texas to block the Republican-led legislature from voting on key measures. Those bills include relief for flood victims and a new congressional map that could add up to 10 GOP-leaning districts. With Democrats hiding out in hotels and out-of-state safe havens, the chamber has been unable to meet the two-thirds attendance required for a vote.
According to ABC News, Powered by People has been footing part of the bill for these absent lawmakers, covering lodging and transportation. O’Rourke has kept close contact with them, vowing to “have the backs of these heroic state lawmakers for as long as it takes to stop Trump’s power grab.”
Speaking at a rally in Fort Worth, O’Rourke dispensed with polite politics. He urged Democrat-controlled states to redraw their own maps to squeeze out as many Republican districts as possible. His instructions were blunt: “We punch first, and we punch harder.” He called on California, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland and other blue states to act immediately, not “wait for Texas to move first,” and to do so regardless of established norms. “There are no refs in this game. F*** the rules. We’re going to win whatever it takes,” he told the crowd.
The problem for O’Rourke is that many of those states have already gerrymandered themselves into maximum Democrat advantage. Illinois Republicans, for example, won 46 percent of the 2024 House vote yet hold only three of 17 seats. In California, GOP candidates won over 40 percent of the vote statewide but control just nine of 52 seats. Maryland remains one of the most gerrymandered states in America.
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled states are preparing their own counteroffensive. Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Florida and South Carolina are all exploring redistricting that could yield a dozen or more new GOP seats. A pending Supreme Court decision on race-based districts could tilt the balance even further.
O’Rourke may soon be sidelined from the fight altogether. On Friday, a Texas judge effectively barred Powered by People from raising money for or supporting absent lawmakers, cutting off the funding lifeline for his fugitive allies. Paxton called the ruling a victory for the rule of law. For O’Rourke, it is just another loss in a career full of them.
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