HOUSTON — Just as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred was holding a town hall near the Mexican border as part of an “unrig Texas” campaign tour, the state’s Democratic fundraising powerhouse Beto O’Rourke rallied support in Austin for lawmakers who left the state to delay a redistricting plan led by President Donald Trump. The next morning, one of those wayward lawmakers, James Talarico, stood in the pulpit at former President Barack Obama’s old church in Chicago to say he and his fellow legislators had simply taken a leap of faith.
All three Democrats are either declared or potential contenders for the Senate seat on the ballot in next year’s midterm elections. In what would typically be a quiet period in Texas politics, Republicans have roiled the state’s 2026 Senate campaign with their rush to redraw congressional maps to give Trump more allies in Congress. The turmoil impacts contenders in both parties and gives Democrats fresh hope that they can capture a long-elusive seat, where an upset would dramatically improve their chances of regaining Senate control in Washington.
For Democrats, the GOP power play offers a new way to stand out as fighters against Trump and his Make America Great Again movement.
For Republicans, including incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, it’s a Trump loyalty test. Cornyn publicly called for involving the FBI in rounding up the defiant Democrats. His main primary challenger, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, used his current office to ask state courts to remove departed lawmakers from office and to jail O’Rourke for raising funds to support the Democratic legislators. The clash has also been a welcome distraction from recent questions about Paxton’s private life.
Trump, meanwhile, had his eyes on the U.S. House when he openly prodded Texas Republicans this summer to give him five more GOP seats in a state he won handily last year. He hoped to avoid losing a slim House majority, as he did during his first term in 2018.
Democrats nationwide condemned the effort to alter the playing field, in part because it comes before the typical 10-year timeline for redrawing congressional districts based on census results.
Texas Democrats walked out for two weeks, denying Republicans the quorum they needed. They ended the walkout this week, but only after California Gov. Gavin Newsom countered with a redistricting push in his state, a Democratic stronghold.
“We’ve got to stand up to them. These people are thugs,” O’Rourke said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Giving in or seeking compromise, or trying to make concessions in the hopes that they’ll stop pursuing you, that stuff clearly does not work. The only thing that works is fighting.”
O’Rourke, a former congressman and onetime presidential candidate who has run and lost against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, said he has not decided whether he will launch a senatorial bid.
Paxton has assumed the role as the Left’s chief antagonist, a good look during a primary campaign aimed at drawing the most devout Republicans. He asked courts to expel the lawmakers who walked out, brought lawsuits to declare their seats vacant and sought to jail O’Rourke, arguably the state’s most well-known Democrat, accusing him of illegally raising money to help defray costs for the Democratic lawmakers who left.
A judge granted a temporary restraining order, ordering O’Rourke to cease and handing Paxton a victory.
“We are pursuing every legal remedy at our disposal to hold these rogue legislators accountable,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas deserves representatives who do their jobs instead of running away at the behest of their billionaire handlers.”
Cornyn used his federal role to ask the FBI to help bring Democratic lawmakers who fled the state back to Texas.
After first criticizing Paxton for being on vacation in Europe when the redistricting drama began, Cornyn used the moment to question Paxton’s tactics.
“It seems like both are doing what each of them can do, given their own public office,” said Roy Bailey, a wealthy Republican donor from Dallas.
Cornyn’s own polling shows him trailing Paxton. Cornyn’s campaign and groups that support him, including a pro-Cornyn super PAC and the Washington-based Senate Leadership Fund, have spent more than $7.5 million in advertising since July, mainly criticizing Paxton.
Republicans affiliated with the Senate majority in Washington, including the Senate Leadership Fund, have argued that if Paxton wins the Republican Senate primary, it would cost the party at least $100 million more to win the open seat in Texas. Although the map of states with Senate elections next year favors Republicans, the party can afford to lose no more than four seats and still hold the majority.
O’Rourke has rallied around the state and raised money to support the dozens of Texas House Democrats who left the state earlier this month.
“At a time that so many who have the power to fight are instead bending the knee to Donald Trump,” he said, “the country really needed to see someone stand and fight.”
The redistricting drama has also inspired Allred, a former congressman and voting rights attorney who launched his bid for the Democratic nomination last month, to travel for a series of town halls on redistricting.
Allred told The Associated Press the fight is energizing organizers and voters. He said a pastor in a Black church in Dallas compared the situation to a bully only being able to take it so far before victims start fighting back.
“If this had passed as quickly as it looked like it was going to, I think many folks wouldn’t have known what was happening,” Allred said after a Houston town hall. “There certainly wouldn’t have been the national attention on what’s happening here in Texas, but that attention has built and built, and the awareness has also built and built, and so this means to me that ultimately there also will be a backlash against these folks who are trying to rig the elections.”
The clash in Texas has elevated the profile of Talarico, a 36-year-old legislator from Austin. He was among those who packed their bags and headed to Chicago. Talarico has appeared on network television and last month was interviewed by conservative podcaster Joe Rogan.
Talarico’s social media following has expanded to more than 1 million on Instagram and TikTok. He has said he is considering a Senate run but hasn’t decided yet. O’Rourke had high praise for Talarico but said the young lawmaker’s plans wouldn’t affect his decision.
“I think this is one of those moments where Democratic voters are looking at who’s fighting and who’s folding. And that to me is the primary dividing line in our party right now,” Talarico told the AP. “It’s not really progressive versus moderates. It’s fighters versus folders.”
In his sermon Sunday at Obama’s old church in Chicago, Talarico referred to himself as one of the “Texas outlaws” who walked out, prompting loud cheers and applause.
“This is not just a political struggle,” he told them. “It’s a spiritual struggle.”
