Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said Democrats need to fight “fire with fire” and pursue redistricting in states where they have the power to do so.
“I think it’s time that we match fire with fire,” O’Rourke, who since being a member of Congress has run for governor, Senate and president, said Sunday on CNN. “I think Democrats in the past too often have been more concerned with being right than being in power, and we’ve seen Republicans only care about being in power, regardless of what is right.”
O’Rourke’s comments come after President Donald Trump told Texas Republicans last week to redraw the state’s congressional maps to create more Republican House seats, so the party can keep control of the House after the midterm elections.
O’Rourke said Trump is pushing for redistricting because his policies are “deeply unpopular,” and instead of having to answer to voters, he would rather “pick up five seats” through redistricting.
Democrats are looking to do the same. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote on social media in response to Trump’s calls for redistricting in Texas that “two can play that game.” In another post, Newsom cited “special sessions, special elections, ballot initiatives” and “new laws” to fight back on Republican redistricting.
O’Rourke said Democratic state legislators should fight back by denying their Republican colleagues a quorum to move forward.
“We have to get serious,” O’Rourke said. “We have to be absolutely ruthless about getting back in power.”
He said when members of Congress can choose their own voters, that’s not a democracy. But he also said that Democrats have to use “every lever of power” to their advantage, even if it’s hypocritical.
“I think that Democrats have been so scared of being branded as hypocrites or coloring outside of the lines that it has absolutely paralyzed them in this struggle for power in America,” O’Rourke said. “You don’t see the other side worrying about any of that at all.”
He continued: “We have got to fight back. We cannot roll over. We cannot play dead.”