The Democratic members of the Texas state legislature rebelled. Again.
On August 3, 2025, they broke the legislative quorum to stop the passage of new congressional maps, which would net Republicans five more congressional seats. Texas Republicans have recouped and resurged across the Lone Star State, so adding more GOP House districts isn’t unfair.
The Texas Democratic Party has played this power play before.
In 2003, Texas House Democrats broke the legislative quorum to prevent the passage of new congressional maps, which would have created four more GOP House seats. Texas Democratic state senators pulled the same stunt later that year. They failed.
In 2021, Texas Democrats broke the quorum to prevent key election reforms from being passed. The Speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phalen, didn’t crack down on their disobedient disappearance, since he depended on them to get elected Speaker. The voting reforms still passed, but other conservative priorities were shelved because Democrats held out over two special sessions. Partial win.
This year, they busted the quorum again to stop another “Texas gerrymander.” They lined up press conferences in the most gerrymandered state in the Union—Illinois. California Governor Gavin Newsom hosted the Texas Democrats as a pretext to justify his own Newsom-mandering. The Texas Dems returned home. After eighteen days, they failed to deter the Texas Republicans from redrawing the districts—again.
For the record, the Texas GOP is not gerrymandering, but rather un-gerrymandering, or unmandering. Their new GOP-leaning districts are more compact, race-neutral, and more respectful of the territorial, cultural, and municipal boundaries. In other words, more democratic.
The Texas Democrats accomplished one thing: political theater, but the quorum bust was a bust.
What’s worse, the Democrats were protesting democracy. For all the talk about the rule of law and the will of the voters, their latest temper tantrum because they didn’t get their way establishes them as the most anti-democratic force in the country. They don’t care about the power to the people, but rather power to themselves. The argument persists that there is a corrupt disconnect between political parties and their voters, and “The Democracy” has repeatedly proven this ugly trend.
One would think that the Democrats would have learned by now that quorum-busting doesn’t work. Voters have learned that the Democrats aren’t working, not getting anything done, and whatever they do is a massive fail. They could argue that they inspired California to “out-gerrymander” Texas, but that’s just bluster.
Texas Democrats’ latest performative fail has bolstered Republicans across the country. More red states are redistricting their Congressional seats, removing the remaining Democratic seats in these conservative bastions of prosperity and victory. Liberal pundits should have advised the Texas Democrats to suck it up and sit this out. Let the Texas GOP “steal” five more seats, then campaign in 2026 on ending Republican “gerrymandering.”
But the Democrats have never really cared about fulfilling the wishes of the people.
In fact, the Texas Democrats displayed the national Democratic Party’s disdain for the rules, the voters, and respect for local leadership and national prestige. The DNC, headed by milquetoast woke white liberal chairman Ken Martin, cheered on these Texas tricks, with no thought for the endgame. The Texas Dems lost, and the national party is the loser paying the long-term price.
And that’s the point: the Democratic Party is not playing the long game anymore. For decades, they marched through the institutions, torched them to the ground, but now they reign over ashes. The Republican Party, with Trump’s brute force and committed policy zeal, has begun building new institutions, shaping culture and media, and changing the educational scene.
Republicans are also winning elections, and they are getting things done. While the Texas Democrats abandoned their jobs, the Republican majority in Austin stayed put, acted like adults, outlined their intentions, and delivered results for the voters.
The Republican Party works. The Democratic Party whines and dines on the taxpayers’ dime. Guess who gets the better press?
It wasn’t always this way.
After Obama’s ascendancy, Democrats ignored voters, since they thrived on big business, union labor, and lots of easy media for elections. Under Joe Biden, the Democrats got Everything They Wanted: open borders, gun control, climate change as tax policy, more wars, rising crime, mass migration overwhelming major cities, and LGBT as the new religion. None of that worked for voters, but the Democrats didn’t have to care.
Now Democrats have no power, and the Texas tantrums, plus the hollow cosplay of Democratic Congressmen on social media, prove that they don’t even deserve a seat at the kids’ table. They are replaying the tired playbook of media smears, political sound bites, and cringeworthy publicity stunts. They can’t steal elections anymore, and big billionaire money (like what turned Colorado blue) won’t turn voters who abhor the effects of bad Democratic policy more keenly than flashy ads from progressive PACs.
For years, the Republican Party was plagued with grifters: consultants, influencers, and wagging heads who talked big but accomplished nothing. Winning elections didn’t matter, as long as the consultants and campaign managers cashed their checks and showered some dough on their folks at home.
Then came Donald Trump. Voters believed he would deliver, and he has delivered. With Trump 2.0 in control, Republicans can no longer campaign on conservative principles and then renege once elected. If they win the vote, they have to win the victory, or they will lose come November. Republicans campaign and accomplish policy wins that 80% of the voters favor, too. Doing popular things works!
In contrast, the Democratic Party is still beholden to a small swarm of SJWs who will kill on sight (see Minnesota), or harass and badger elected officials until they get their 20-80 way. Post-Trump, the Democrats have no machine, media, or mania. They must offer something to get votes, but they can’t. All they have is performance: the Texas Tantrums. Their failure reflects the national party’s fall into an organization that is all hat and no cattle. If Republicans stick to their guns, they can put the Dems out to pasture.
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