Karl Rove Warns of ‘Consequences for Both Parties’ in Texas Redistricting Spat
Republican strategist Karl Rove has warned of “consequences” for both Republicans and Democrats in a monumental redistricting fight out of Texas.
Appearing on Fox News on Thursday, Rove said both parties are facing an arduous path as a result of the scuffle over the Texas GOP’s effort to redistrict the state and pick up five seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Some 50 Texas Democrats fled the state’s borders over the weekend to deny the GOP-led House a quorum – the minimum amount of members present to conduct official business.
But Rove is here to tell you that both sides will likely suffer.
“First of all, let’s admit there are gonna be consequences for both parties as a result of what is happening in Texas that neither party will like,” Rove told America’s Newsroom hosts Dana Perino and Jacqui Heinrich.
He added:
Yes, the Democrats are going to try and do something and in all likelihood they say in California, but they’ve got a constitutional requirement that the lines are drawn by a commission. So Gov. [Gavin] Newsom would need to first get legislation through his very pliant democratic legislature, which he can do. But then he would have to go to the voters in November and get them to retroactively remove the provision from the constitution and validate his plan, and that’s a very big uphill climb. New York, Gov. [Kathy] Hochul, says all is fair in love and war and we’re gonna retaliate, but her constitution prohibits them from mid-decade redistricting and so hard for us to see how that gets done. Now, can Maryland step in maybe and by legislation make — take away the one Republican seat in the state, yes, But there are not a lot of places you can see a clear path for the Democrats picking up a number of seats to counter what might happen in Texas, a gain of four or five. And remember, when we talk about five seats in Texas, one of those seats requires the Republicans to beat a popular, albeit troubled democratic incumbent who ran six points ahead of Kamala Harris last fall and one of the 13 people who — 13 Democrats who won a seat that Donald Trump carried.
In a piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal Thursday, entitled “Gerrymandering and JB Pritzker’s Inferno,” Rove wrote that if Democrats “keep this up, they could sport gilded lead cloaks for eternity.”
Rove’s remarks came as Texas Sen. John Cornyn revealed President Trump’s FBI agreed to help hunt down and return the runaway Democrats to Texas.
In a statement, Cornyn said he sent FBI Director Kash Patel a request for help rounding up the dozens of Democrats who fled the Lone Star State, and Patel accepted.
Watch above via Fox News.
