Beto O’Rourke raises funds for Texas Democrats, says 2026 midterms will be decided this summer

By David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke said Wednesday that he is raising funds for Democratic members of the state legislature who left Texas to stall a GOP redistricting push.

“We’ve got to have their backs,” O’Rourke said in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room” on Wednesday, praising “tens of thousands” of donors for contributing toward “their food, their flights,” and “the defense that they’re going to need.”

O’Rourke is raising the funds through his Texas political action committee, Powered By People, which brought in more than $700,000 for state House Democrats during a similar quorum break in 2021. Democratic US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a key fundraiser for her party, is also helping with the effort.

Texas Democrats left the state Sunday to deny the legislature a quorum, preventing Republicans from passing a new US House map that could help the GOP flip as many as five seats next year.

“The election of 2026 is going to be decided in the summer of 2025,” O’Rourke said.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday asked the Texas Supreme Court to disqualify state Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader, from office. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have threatened to seek more disqualifications if enough Democrats don’t return to the state by Friday, when Republicans are next planning to try to move forward with redistricting.

Paxton announced Wednesday that his office had started an investigation into O’Rourke’s fundraising efforts.

In a statement, he said his office would demand “documents and communications from the group regarding potentially unlawful activity, including its involvement in the Democrats’ scheme to break quorum.”

“Any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe will be held accountable,” said Paxton, who is running in the Republican primary for US Senate.

Absent Democratic lawmakers are subject to fines of $500 a day. And Republican leaders have also asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest the lawmakers for leaving the state and investigate them for bribery if they accept outside help in paying the fines.

“They’ve got (Department of Public Safety) state troopers trying to hunt them down right now. They may face the long arm of federal law enforcement as well. I mean, they – they are doing this at extraordinary risk to themselves personally,” O’Rourke said.

The former Democratic presidential candidate described the fight over the aggressive redistricting push by Texas Republicans in stark terms.

“If we fail, the consolidation of authoritarian power in America will be nearly unstoppable,” O’Rourke warned.

“That means more masked plainclothes federal agents without badges or warrants sweeping our fellow Americans up off the streets. It means more retribution and persecution and even violence for Trump’s political opponents. And it also means that a Republican-majority Congress, with these five stolen seats, if we allow them to succeed, will roll out the royal red carpet for a Trump third term. So, this is literally for all the marbles,” he added.

He also voiced support for members of his party looking at pursuing redistricting in blue states in an attempt to neutralize the Texas GOP effort. Among those who are proposing changes are Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York.

“I think for far too long, my party has been more concerned with being right and coloring within the lines than they’ve cared about being in power.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

The-CNN-Wire
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