There is supposed to be a vote in Texas today on a new congressional map that, if enacted, could give Republicans five seats that would be more competitive in for the 2026 midterm elections. To counter this, Texas Democrats are... running away. Yes, you guessed it, to "save democracy."

And they're running away to Illinois, a state that even with the new Texas map is more disproportionately gerrymandered.

It's not "anti-democracy" when Democrats do it.

Some of you may find yourself asking, "Hey Brodigan, didn't we see this movie before?"

Yes, we did. In 2021, Democrats ran away to block Texas's commonsense voter integrity bill. It passed the Senate, which they also said would destroy democracy, and was signed into law. They ran because, without a quorum, the House can't pass the bill. The runaway Democrats couldn't tell you what's in the bill or why they hated it. They just did what Democrats do and claimed everything is raaaaaaacist. Now one of them is a fugitive from justice.

Side note: The bill passed, and democracy is still a thing. Yet, here we go again. Democrats could use some new material.

A showdown over redistricting in Texas played out here on Sunday as dozens of state Democrats took refuge roughly 1,000 miles away from home, saying they fled Texas to deny quorum to Republican efforts to add as many as five congressional seats to their map.

The Texas state House Democrats filed off of buses and Ubers into a crammed county party headquarters at a strip mall Sunday night, standing alongside Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to rail against what they charged was a racist, unfair and undemocratic attempt to overhaul the Lone Star State’s political map.

Last time, there were threats of having the runaway Democrats arrested, but they came home to do their jobs. There was a quorum. The law that was always going to pass passed. Democracy lived on to have Democrats claim them not getting their way will destroy democracy for another day.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott isn't suffering fools this time. He says if they aren't back to do their job at 3:00, he's going to move to have them removed from office.

Is Abbott making an idle threat? Will Democrats return home to do their jobs so they can fundraise off of resisting Trump? Whose punk card will be pulled first? What happens when Donald Trump drops bars on TruthSocial about the ordeal?

You have about six hours or so to pop all the popcorn you can. Maybe get the Shiner on ice while you're at it.

Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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