Letters from an American - August 3, 2025

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

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Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is traveling today, and her travel arrangements did not allow her time to read today's letter, so I will be reading it in her place. August 3rd, 2025. Today, Democratic lawmakers from the Texas House of Representatives left the state to deny Republican lawmakers the quorum, the number of legislators required to pass legislation they need in order to push through a new district map that would take five seats currently held by Democrats and give them to Republicans. President Donald J. Trump has demanded this rare mid decade redistricting in an attempt to hold control of the House of Representatives in 2026.

He is urging all Republican dominated States to make a similar change to guarantee Republican dominance, regardless of the will of voters. Republicans in the Texas legislature rushed a bill that would make the new map law through committee on Saturday morning after the one public hearing they held on it showed overwhelming opposition. Sophia Beausoleil of NBC5 in Dallas, Fort Worth, reports that the Texas House is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday. My Democratic colleagues and I have just left our beloved state to break quorum and stop Trump's redistricting power grab, Texas State Representative James Tallarico said in a video posted to social

media. Trump told our Republican colleagues to redraw the political maps here in Texas in the middle of the decade to get him five more seats and protect his majority in Congress. They're turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 elections. If this power grab succeeds they will hang on onto power without any accountability from the voters. But Texas Democrats are fighting back. We're leaving the state, breaking quorum, and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election. We are not fighting for the Democratic Party. We are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher.

We have to take a stand. The Texas legislators traveled to Boston, Massachusetts and to Albany, New York to confer with Democratic leaders. About 30 of them, though, went to Chicago, Illinois, where Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker welcomed them at a press conference tonight. Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu emphasized that the Democrats had tried to work with the Republicans, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Republican lawmakers were forcing the new map through

against the will of the voters because Trump told them to. Wu's explanation mirrors that of Republican state representative Cody Vassut, who told Natasha Korecki and Ryan Chandler of NBC News, this map was politically based and that's totally legal, totally allowed and totally fair. Wu warned that the attempt to grab five new seats in Texas to maintain control of the US House of Representatives against the will of voters is a threat not only to Texas but to the entire country and to the concept of America. If Donald Trump is allowed to do this, if he is allowed

to once again cheat and get away with it, there is no stopping this. This will spread across the country and will occur everywhere. Because if one person is going to cheat and no one is going to stop it, why doesn't everyone just do it then? And that is not a society. That is not an America that works. Wu continued, Everyone is already tired of the hyper-partisan bickering and all the fighting because we never get anything done. And they are creating a system that will reinforce that and make it even worse. And we're telling people, please come out.

Stand up against it. Rise up and say no more. Enough. Wu said the Texas Democratic representatives did not make the decision to come here today lightly, but we come here today with absolute moral clarity. Governor Pritzker has been in contact with the Texas Democrats to plan for such a moment. His staff will provide logistical support to the visiting Texans. Tonight, he made it clear that the Texas Democrats' fight against Trump's power grab is the fight of all Americans to protect democracy. Let's be clear, Pritzker said. This is not just rigging the system in Texas.

It's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come. Pritzker continued, Texas Democrats were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents. This is a righteous act of courage. Pritzker urged other Americans to take a page from Lee's Leader's Playbook. When you show people that you have the will to fight, well, they can muster the will to fight, too. Courage is contagious. To be in public office right now is to constantly ask yourself, how do I make sure that we're standing on the right side of history. There's a simple answer. The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. The right side of history will always expect you to be courageous. Expect courage from the

people around you and it will show up. Expect fear and fear will rule the day. Let the courage of these leaders be an example to the rest of the country. I'm proud to stand side by side with our friends from Texas today. Tonight, U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat of Texas, told an audience in Phoenix, Arizona, my former colleagues from the Texas House, those Texas Democrats, decided to get the hell out of Texas. And breaking quorum is where they're at right now. And they didn't just do it by themselves. They went to Illinois, where there was a governor that gives a damn.

You see, this fight is going to take all of us. Crockett's comments came at tonight's launch of the Won't Back Down Tour, organized by Move On and Midas Touch, to hold Republicans accountable and organized for 2026. Crockett, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, and Representative Yasemin Ansari, a Democrat of Arizona, spoke tonight. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, and Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat of Florida, will take the tour to Nebraska next. Texas Governor Abbott responded to the Texas House Democrats' quorum break by threatening

to remove from office any Democrats who are not back in their seats for Monday's vote and replace them swiftly with his own appointees thanks to his power to fill vacancies. He also suggested he would consider them felons for accepting money to pay for their food and housing in Chicago and that such a designation would enable him to cross state lines to get them back. He threatened to use, my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons. When a reporter asked about Abbott's threat, Pritzker responded,

They're here in Illinois. We're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them. It's the leaders of Texas who are attempting not to follow the law. They're the ones that need to be held accountable. Letters from an American was written by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.