MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
One of the Texas lawmakers who left the state is on the line with us now. That's Democratic Texas State Representative Gina Hinojosa. She's with us now from Chicago. Good morning.
GINA HINOJOSA: Good morning.
MARTIN: Just tell us again why you and your colleagues decided to do this.
HINOJOSA: Well, we don't have the numbers to beat this effort to rig the '26 midterms in favor of five extra Republicans in the U.S. Congress because we are the minority party in Texas. But we do have the numbers to stop business on the floor of the House. And so, with our departure, that business has stopped, and the bill cannot pass. I will say, in Austin, where I represent, we have two seats in Congress. This bill would eliminate the Latino opportunity seat. Similar thing happens in Houston, which is the city with the largest Latino population in all of Texas. Their Latino opportunity seat will be removed. So Trump and Governor Abbott are trying to gain five additional Republican seats in Congress on the backs of Latino voters and also African American voters.
MARTIN: So, you know, to that end, your colleague State Representative Gene Wu accused Governor Abbott of, quote, "using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans," unquote. Do you think that's true? I mean, it's obviously partisan, but what makes it racist?
HINOJOSA: Right. The proclamation issued by the governor that authorizes the 30-day special session says specifically the reason for redistricting is a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice. Pam Bondi wrote a letter saying that specific districts would be eliminated, should be eliminated, because they are majority minority districts. So the governor's own proclamation authorizing the special session says this is about race by citing the U.S. Department of Justice letter to our governor.
MARTIN: You know, Democrats tried the same maneuver in 2003 to avoid a Republican-led redistricting plan. Republicans eventually got the new map they wanted. Then you, in 2021, organized that same effort to try to block Republicans from passing new voting restrictions, and that also failed. So what makes you think that this might be successful this time?
HINOJOSA: Let me clarify that in '21, when we broke quorum, the bill eventually passed. But we brought such attention, such a national spotlight onto what Texas Republicans were doing that they gutted their own bill. So in that way, we achieved a victory we could not have anticipated. And today, I have learned that lesson, that you do what's right for the day. You win for the day, and we don't know what tomorrow will hold. So it's a day-by-day, situational fight. And we'll play to win every day.
MARTIN: Can't the governor just call you back for another special session after this one is scheduled to end?
HINOJOSA: He does have that power, yes. And at that point, if that happens, we will have to make a decision about what's the best strategy to move forward.
MARTIN: And as you just heard, the governor suggested he could start a court process to kick you and other Democrats out of office for leaving the state. He says he can appoint your replacement. And he also suggested lawmakers who are asking for money to pay for fines may be violating a bribery law. What's your response to that?
HINOJOSA: That is disrespectful to Texans, to voters, to who they have selected to represent them. It is along the same lines of what he is trying to do by denying the voice of voters by this extreme gerrymandering, manipulating districts so as to predetermine the '26 midterms. It is undemocratic. It is anti the foundations of our country, and it is extreme and harmful to our constituents. So we will do everything in our power to fight it.
MARTIN: Before we let you go, this session that the legislature is in right now was called to focus on redistricting. But it also is about the July 4 floods. It's about bathrooms for transgender residents, among other matters. What about those priorities?
HINOJOSA: Well, the floods definitely should be a priority, but Republicans are not serious about addressing those priorities. We have had only two hearings on the floods that killed over 135 Texans. We've had seven or eight hearings on redistricting. So we understood that the agenda was about playing politics, and we didn't want to participate in that. So the governor can issue flood relief on his own. He has that power. He's demonstrated that kind of power in the past for other priorities of his. And we won't let him use Texans and use this tragedy to take away the voice of our voters.
MARTIN: That's Gina Hinojosa. She's a Democrat who represents Texas' 49th district in the state's House of Representatives. Representative Hinojosa, thanks for your time.
HINOJOSA: Thank you.
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