Democrats are trying to take the fight to Republicans, alleging they are facing an existential threat, with Gov. Greg Abbott‘s (R-TX) attempt to redistrict Texas’s congressional map mid-cycle to protect the GOP’s majority in the United States House before next year’s midterm elections.
Their response coincides with Democrats protesting Republican lawmaker town halls during the August recess as the party hopes to counter polling from last weekend that found Democrats consider their representatives “weak” and “ineffective.”
“Texas House Democrats are demonstrating what it means to fight for the preservation of our constitutional republic,” Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) told reporters Tuesday during a press conference with Texas Democrats and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin in Chicago.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) used similar language on Monday during her press conference in Albany, New York.
“We are at war. And that’s why the gloves are off and I say, bring it on,” she said. “This will have implications not just in Texas, but for our entire nation and its future.”
The existential threat rhetoric and return to underscoring the importance of elections and democracy come after Democrats lost last year’s election, in part, with the same message.
Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin defended the redistricting existential threat strategy. Though Hankin conceded redistricting is probably not “the issue” that will win next year’s midterm elections for Democrats, he told the Washington Examiner it “encapsulates so much of what is wrong and what we know just drives voters nuts, of all stripes.”
“It’s politicians doing whatever the hell they want, changing the rules for their own benefit, politicians picking the voters that they want versus voters picking the politicians that they want,” he said. “You arguably couldn’t find a better issue to coalesce around, and it’s got the benefit of left, right, and center of the Democratic coalition arguably almost all on board.”
When pressed on how the strategy differs from last year, the strategist added: “We’ve moved from theoretical to it’s happening.”
Democrats have been organizing with their Texas colleagues to support them in breaking quorum in the state’s House for the two remaining weeks of its special legislative session to prevent a vote on a new congressional district map, requested by President Donald Trump, which could provide U.S. House Republicans with five more seats. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) currently has a three-seat majority.
To do so, 50-plus Texas Democrats departed the state for places including Chicago — in that case, with the help of Pritzker, a billionaire and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.
In turn, Abbott has threatened the Texas Democrats with $500-a-day fines, arrest, and removal from office.
The Texas governor filed with the state Supreme Court Tuesday to petition to remove one of the state House members, Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair, marking the first legal effort to remove a member for fleeing.
Simultaneously, Democrats nationwide have protested Republican lawmaker town halls, including one held by Rep. Mike Flood (R-N), the new chairman of the House Main Street Caucus, on Monday in Lincoln, Nebraska.
“How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” one attendee asked.
Republicans were previously advised against holding town halls after protests in the spring, but House members have since been redirected to go on the political offensive during the summer break.
Democrats did organize shortly after the inauguration in January against former de facto Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk and then again in June following Trump’s federalization of the National Guard in reaction to anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles, but without the apparent urgency regarding Texas.
The DNC, for instance, cited its almost 150 town halls in all 50 states, its mobilization of 30,000 volunteers who have sent more than 250,000 texts to Texas voters concerning redistricting, and its launch of its summer organizing program.
“Democrats have been united in this fight since Day One of Trump’s presidency, and we’re never taking our foot off the gas,” Nina Raneses, deputy national press secretary of the DNC, told the Washington Examiner. “Trump broke his promise to lower costs, signed a law that rips away healthcare and food assistance from millions of families, and now he’s commanded Texas Republicans to disenfranchise millions of voters across the state.”
But Democrats themselves have admitted they are having “problems” with Trump, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), another speculated 2028 presidential candidate, last week during a Senate debate related to bipartisan “police week” legislation.
“This to me is the problem with Democrats in America right now,” Booker said. “We are being complicit to Donald Trump.”
Weeks earlier, former President Barack Obama similarly implored Democrats to “make some effort to stand up for the things that you think are right.”
“If we all do that, if we do our jobs over the next year and a half, then I think we will rebuild momentum and we will position ourselves to get this country moving in the direction it should,” he said last month during a fundraiser.
The White House downplayed the idea that Democrats were experiencing success with their organizing concerning redistricting.
“President Trump has spent six months transforming America into the hottest country in the world and delivering win after win for the American people,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told the Washington Examiner. “Meanwhile, the Democrat Party is in total disarray, suffering from a disastrous brand crisis and historically low approval ratings.”
Huston went on: “Democrats have no desire to make America great again – instead, they proudly opposed the largest middle class tax cuts in history, spent thousands of dollars on travel to El Salvador to support an illegal alien criminal, and endangered women by allowing men to play in their sports.”
A second Republican strategist was less articulate, contending Democrats were “throwing s— at the wall and hoping it sticks.”
“Their polling is in the gutter, they have very ugly, messy, expensive primaries, they’re losing in the money race against Republicans, they’re out of touch on all these issues, the socialist wing is taking over,” the strategist told the Washington Examiner.
To that end, Trump’s super PAC disclosed last week that it raised almost $177 million during the first six months of this year, and his leadership PAC brought in $28 million, for a total of $234 million cash on hand. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee had $80.7 million in cash on hand at the end of June, compared to the DNC’s $15.2 million.
Although structurally, Gallup data released last week found that more voters identify as Democrats or left-leaning than Republican in more than a year, Democratic polling before the 2026 midterm elections portrays a mixed picture of their prospects.
Democrats have an average 3%-point edge on a generic congressional ballot and a larger advantage in right direction-wrong track polling, according to RealClearPolitics on Tuesday. But Democrats’ favorable-unfavorable rating is net negative 23 points, in contrast to Trump’s of net negative 7 points. In addition, an Associated Press poll last weekend reported that 15% of Democrats described their party as “weak” or “apathetic” and another 10% “ineffective” or “disorganized.”
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But for pollster David Paleologos, “if each party’s message and messenger offset each other, the advantage would tilt toward the Democrats given their electoral track record of granular get-out-the-vote operations historically.”
“In 2024, the Democratic messages on the two top-polling issues of the economy and immigration were inferior as was their nominee,” Paleologos, the director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center, told the Washington Examiner. “2026 is a much different political landscape. The top two issues may be different, and the messengers will be diverse across key states.”