AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We go now to the redistricting showdown underway in Texas, following a push by President Trump for new voter maps that favor Republicans. More than 50 Democratic Texas legislators have left the state to block a vote on a newly drawn Texas congressional map introduced last week that would add as many as five Republican seats, including four that are in majority-Hispanic districts. Republicans could try to force another vote today in a special session which was supposed to address flood relief and disaster recovery. This comes as the Texas House voted Monday to track down and arrest the Democrats who fled.

Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar joined protesters in a march Monday outside the Texas Governor’s Mansion.

REP. GREG CASAR: Governor Greg Abbott is a coward for saying that our law enforcement should go out and arrest our local elected officials. This is America. This is a place where you’re not supposed to be sending law enforcement to go handcuff elected officials that you disagree with.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, here in New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul met with six of the Texas House Democrats and announced she’s working with New York lawmakers to find ways to redraw New York’s own congressional maps in response.

For more, we’re joined in Chicago by Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, Democratic Texas state representative for House District 115, which includes parts of Dallas and North Texas. She met Monday here in New York with Governor Hochul after she fled to block the passage of this new Texas congressional map, then joined her other colleagues who went to Illinois and say they plan to stay out of Texas for the remaining two weeks of the special session.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez. Can you talk about why you left the state, the fact that they’ve now passed civil warrants for your arrest, which they can only administer if you’re back in Texas?

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: Yes, good morning, and thank you so much for having me on here today.

So, they did issue those warrants yesterday. But I do want to make sure that we call out and point out the fact that yesterday, the only vote that was on the floor was a redistricting map. And that comes on the one-month anniversary of the floods that happened, in which we lost many people in the floods, and they’re still reeling and needing financial help and assistance. So, the fact that that happened to be the first vote that came to the floor, I think, speaks multitudes of what Republican leadership is prioritizing in the state of Texas.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about this call to have you, those of you who fled the state, arrested? What’s your reaction to that?

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: You know, we were all advised as far as what the particular sanctions were for us leaving the state. We’re well aware of the fines, as well as they can also reduce our operating budget, and that impacts how we pay for our staff and run our offices, as well as issuing the warrants, as well. They’ve issued it in the past for past quorum breaks, but it was something that all of us were willing to sacrifice for, the fact that this is an incredibly important moment that none of us could miss. And so, we wanted to make sure that we met this moment and got out of there when we needed to, to do what we need to, because as of — you know, as everybody knows, quorum breaking is a legal tool that us, as legislators in Texas, have available to ourselves.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, even before this Republican move, the Texas maps had already been gerrymandered to quite an extent by Republicans. Could you talk about that, and also the claim of the Republican leadership that they did this, these new maps, with no attention to race, yet, according to Politico, about four of the districts that they are seeking to create would be majority-Latino districts, but leaning toward the GOP? Talk about that, as well, this Republican strategy of betting on the Latino community becoming increasingly conservative.

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: Sure. First and foremost, to answer that first question that you had, so, there is current pending litigation on the 2011 maps, or the most recent maps that were drawn, the 2021. And so, those have been pending in litigation in El Paso for quite some time. The arguments that they made for those particular maps is that those were not drawn based off race. The letter that Governor Abbott received from Trump, from the — from Trump’s administration, essentially said that because of these particular four districts that were listed in that letter, were essentially “community,” you know, “race” districts, that they needed to be redrawn. And you did mention as far as them being majority-Latino districts, but these are — some of these, in particular, three of these seats, are seats held by Black members. Three of them, three of the districts from the letter, are from the Houston area, and one of them was from the Dallas area, 33. But now that we’ve actually seen the maps, we see that multiple districts are actually impacted, that are more — it’s a more broad list of districts that are impacted than the letter that Donald Trump had sent to Governor Abbott.

As far as the districts themselves, you know, I’ve had the opportunity — I lived in the Houston area, so I’m familiar with the congresspeople who are being impacted in the area, as well as the two districts being impacted in the Dallas area actually overlap with my House district. As a matter of fact, one of them, 32, is my congressional district, my congresswoman, who I even, myself, was drawn out of her district. And so, you know, as far as all of those districts, all of these districts, essentially, are minority-majority districts. Clearly, these are areas that have been targeted, and those voices that are within those districts are being silenced.

And so, that’s why so many of us have left the state, is because we want to make sure that all of our voices — Texas is an incredibly diverse state. We need to make sure that every community has the opportunity to be heard, that they are not silenced. And we know that this is not just a Texas issue. Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig. Once Trump is able to get what he needs out of Texas, he’s essentially just going to do it in other states, and we cannot allow that. So, that’s why we’re using this very important tool right now, is because we’re also taking the opportunity to get out to other folks and educate people about what’s happening in Texas, what’s happening on a national level, but, more importantly, what we need to do in working with each other, other states, to essentially combat fire with fire. If Texas is ultimately able to pass and give Donald Trump what he wants, we need to make sure that he does not rip that power and essentially take the power away from the people.

AMY GOODMAN: I know you were referring to Congressmember — Democratic Congressmember Jasmine Crockett, also of the Dallas area, like you, who revealed she would no longer live in her own district. We’re going to play a clip.

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT: I currently don’t live in the CD 30 that they created. I don’t. That’s not where I live. Now, they asked us where we live, because they are supposed to take that into consideration. And these are some of the things that the court will look at when they’re trying to determine whether or not there were problems with creating the maps, is incumbents and where they live. And they moved me out of my district. Yeah, they — they completely changed the makeup of Texas 30. It’s really awful. So, we’ll have to have some conversations about what that looks like.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Democratic Congressmember Jasmine Crockett. She has been redistricted out of her district. She doesn’t live in the new district that she would represent. If you could go on, state Representative Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, to talk about Republicans betting big on Latino voters, building on recent gains with the Latino community?

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: Sure, I’m absolutely happy to answer that question. As far as our community in Texas, we essentially make up the majority. We’re the biggest demographic in the state of Texas, the Latino community is. But we also have a substantial amount of the Latino community that doesn’t vote. And the ones that do vote, very often a lot of the issues that they are hyperfocused are things like the meat-and-potato, the pocketbook-type issues.

Because of this last election, we saw — we saw some concerning trends amongst the Latino community as far as, you know, who they were voting for and how they voted, from the top of the ticket all the way down to the bottom ticket. But I will tell you this: The concept and the idea and the message that the Latino community is overwhelmingly supporting and getting behind Republicans is not true. What is important is that people recognize the Latino community as a whole cannot be considered as one voting group. There are different cultural differences depending on what particular different country you come from. It also can vary based off age and whether you’re first, second or third generation. There are so many different factors that play into an individual as a Latino deciding where they’re swayed as far as politics.

And so, obviously, it’s very important for just — you know, for politics in general, for political parties to invest in the Latino community. But I will tell you: The Latino community is just like any other community. They’re feeling the effects of Donald Trump’s policies right now. They’re not able to make ends meet right now. So, you know, I believe that, ultimately, a lot of these policies and a lot of what Republicans are relying on and thinking that the — or, that the Latino community is going to overwhelmingly show up for them this next time around. I think that they’re seriously not really considering the factors and the policies that are impacting, in particular, my community right now, but, quite frankly, working Texas families all over our state.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Representative Garcia, on Monday morning, you met with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. She says her state may try to add Democratic House seats, even though legally the state is supposed to do — have nonpartisan redistricting. What are you urging the blue states, such as New York, Illinois and California, to do if Texas moves forward with this unprecedented redistricting?

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: Sure. You know, just to be frank, all of us who are part of the House Democratic caucus in Texas, we — the trips that we are currently having right now with elected officials all over the United States, we’re not necessarily telling them to do anything. We’re just advising them of what’s going on in Texas, and having discussions with them about what we are seeing in our state, the sham process of the redistricting committee that turned out the maps, what we have seen from our Republican leadership and how they are bowing down to Donald Trump, and just giving them a history of what’s going on in Texas, because this is very unprecedented to see a — the redistricting happening as it is right now. It should not be happening right now. And so, that just goes to show and confirms why the quorum break, in fact, happened, because we are in unprecedented times.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have five seconds. Are you —

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: And that was the last, literally the — 

AMY GOODMAN: Are you — 

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: — the last decision that we needed to make in order to make sure that we protect our democracy,

AMY GOODMAN: We only have five seconds. Are you planning not to — 

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: — go back to Texas for two weeks, the rest of the term?

REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ: We are taking it day by day, hour by hour. We’re just going to make sure that whatever we do, we do it united and we prioritize not only Texans in our districts and our constituents, but also the American people.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there, Democratic Texas state Representative Cassandra Garcia, speaking to us from Chicago. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.