‘That Map?!’ Democrat Blows Fox Host’s Mind by Explaining 9-0 Democratic Map Was Approved by Republican Governor

Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) sparred with Will Cain on Tuesday, as the Fox News host grilled the lawmaker about fleeing the Lone Star State. During the discussion, Cain cited Massachusetts’s 9-0 Democratic congressional map as an example of gerrymandering, only to be told a Republican governor approved it.

Talarico and a slew of other Democratic legislators in Texas are holed up in Illinois to deny the Republican-controlled legislature a quorum. The Texas GOP is attempting a rare mid-decade redistricting scheme that would create five districts more favorable to Republicans. Democrats across the country have decried the gerrymandering effort, with California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) threatening to draw several Republicans in his state out of their seats.

Talarico said he opposes gerrymandering and pointed to legislation advanced by Democrats in Congress when they controlled the House and Senate.

“And in fact, when Democrats had a majority in Congress, they voted to ban gerrymandering in every state, red states and blue states,” Talaric said. “Do you know how many Republican members of Congress joined them in that effort?”

Cain was caught off guard by the question.

“Which one?” the host asked. “I’m sorry. Which state did you just refer to?”

“I’m asking, do you know how many Republicans joined Democrats to ban gerrymandering?” Talarico said. “All the Democrats voted for it. Zero Republicans voted for it. Zero. So, you can spare me the ‘both sides’ rhetoric. It’s clearly one side that is trying to rig the rules in the middle of the game.”

Talarico appeared to be referring to the For the People Act, which the House passed on a party-line vote in 2021 before dying in the Senate. The lawmaker then likened Republicans to a football team that is winning at halftime and wants to change the rules to make it harder for the opponent to win.

Cain then pivoted to Massachusetts, where Democrats have a supermajority in both state legislative chambers and have only Democrats in their nine-member congressional delegation:

CAIN: It just kind of flies in the face of reality when I look at the state of Massachusetts, where Donald Trump gets 35% of the votes and there are zero Republican representatives from the state–

TALARICO: And who signed that map in Massachusetts?

CAIN: Words say one thing, and actions do something else in a place like Massachusetts. So, you can’t–

TALARICO: You brought up Massachusetts–

CAIN: So, you can’t bring up random words and actions to me when I see the evidence in these states. Look–

TALARICO: You just referred to Massachusetts–

CAIN: You gave the ballgame analogy. In my view, what has happened here is you’ve done something in certain states, and you don’t like it in Republican states. And now you’re saying, “You’ve done the same thing as us. You’ve done the same thing as us. And we are gonna, by the way, if you do it, we’re gonna ratchet it up even more,” in the words of Gavin Newsom.

TALARICO: My party has never gerrymandered in the midde of a decade through a request of the president of the United States, nor would we. The only way this is gonna happen in blue states is if Texas executes this power grab. You mentioned Massachusetts. Do you know the party of the governor that signed that map into law? He was a Republican. It was a Republican governor that signed that map in to law.

CAIN: What? That map?!

TALARICO: I wanna be clear with our facts, and I don’t wanna muddy the waters. All of us, whether we’re Democrats, independents, or Republicans, we should stand up to politicians that don’t want to face accountability at the ballot box. That’s exactly what’s happening here.

The current congressional maps in Massachusetts were signed off on in 2021 by then-Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican. The Bay State hasn’t sent a Republican to the U.S. House in more than 30 years, but this is due to the geography of the state and not the way its congressional maps are drawn. Last week, The Boston Globe noted that drawing even just one district favorable to Republicans would be quite the undertaking.

“Though there are plenty of Republican-leaning voters in Massachusetts, it would be practically impossible to create a Republican-controlled congressional district because the state’s major population hubs tend to vote Democratic,” the paper said. “A red congressional district, no matter how wonkily drawn, would likely lack the required population size to qualify.”

Watch above via Fox News.