As Texas continues special session without a quorum, a recap of the day so far:
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The redistricting battle in Texas has gone far beyond the state’s borders, as Democrats fled the state to various blue safe-havens (New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois) –breaking quorum and grinding legislative business to a halt. Texas Governor Greg Abbott – incensed by Dems bolting – has vowed to expel lawmakers who fail to return to the Capitol in Austin by 3pm CT. The Texas House Democratic Caucus snapped back in a statement: “Come and take it”.
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Abbott has also threatened to pursue legal action if any Texas Democrats solicit campaign donations that are used to pay the $500-a-day fine they’re racking up by leaving the Capitol during a legislative session without permission.
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The new mid-decade congressional map by Texas Republicans – redrawn earlier than usual at the behest of Donald Trump – has ignited a counterattack from Democrats. In an effort to offset the five seats that the GOP could pick up in 2026 if Texas successfully passes their map, Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing for a special election to reinstate the California legislature with the power to redraw the state’s own map. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference earlier today that she’s exploring “every option” to redraw New York’s state congressional lines. However, this would require a re-write of the state’s constitution.
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In the days since Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer – the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – he has doubled down on his baseless claims that her latest, and last, jobs report was “rigged” and the data was “manipulated”. Despite the lack of evidence, his circle maintain the president “wants his own people” at the BLS.
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Also earlier, the president announced a new tariff hike for India – the exact number currently unknown. It comes as a penalty for India continuing to buy and sell Russian oil. A choice, that Trump says, is helping fund “the Russian war machine” in Ukraine. India’s government has called the increased levies “unjustified and unreasonable”.
Key events
Back in Texas, reporter Roque Planas brings us the latest from Greg Casar’s picket outside the Governor’s Mansion:
Congressman Greg Casar railed against Texas governor Greg Abbott for threatening to arrest Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to block redistricting from moving forward by denying Republican lawmakers a quorum.
“It’s absurd that Greg Abbott thinks he’s some kind of dictator that can send DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] to arrest elected officials,” Casar said.
“Governor Abbott could have easily passed flood relief on day one of this special session,” Casar added. “Instead he’s holding flood relief hostage… It’s all about himself and Donald Trump.”
Every Republican member of the Texas congressional delegation that Casar has discussed the map with has told him privately that they oppose the redistricting effort, he said. Republicans have worried since Trump first floated the redistricting plan that any attempt to redraw the state’s congressional districts could backfire, since creating new right-leaning districts is hard to do without making existing red districts less conservative.
Christina Destefano, 32, said she joined the protest out of anger at the Republican-dominated Texas legislature’s decision to prioritize redistricting over passing relief for the victims of the Hill Country floods that left more than 100 people dead.
“I’m opposed to the gerrymandering and redistricting,” Destefano said. “I would like free and fair elections.”
“There’s a lot of fight here,” she added. “We are not a solid red state. There’s a lot of courage coming from Democratic leaders to break quorum.”
Attendee David Pyndus, 66, said he enjoyed the opportunity to meet Casar, his congressional representative.
Pyndus only found out at the protest that if the Republican-drawn map becomes law, neither he nor Casar would live in their current district.
“I’m glad to see my congressman out here organizing people,” he said. “We all know that life isn’t fair. But shouldn’t government be leveling the playing field?”
‘We’re participating in a long American tradition of standing up to bullies,’ Texas Democrat tells the Guardian
Shrai Popat
I just spoke with Representative James Talarico on the phone. He’s one of the Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to break quorum. Talarico is now just outside Chicago, and told me that he and his colleagues are committed staying out of the Texas state Capitol for the next two weeks, until the end of the special session on 19 August.
He added that the support for the legislators who left Texas has been overwhelming.
“We are using the avalanche of grassroots donations across Texas to fund the food and the travel and the lodgings,” Talarico said. “There’s a lot more cost to this than just the fines,” referring to the $500 penalty that lawmakers incur each day they are absent from the state Capitol without permission during a legislative session.
Talarico also confirmed that he and his Democratic colleagues will be paying these daily fines themselves. But he added that state representatives only earn roughly $600 per month. “We have day jobs, it’s how we make ends meet and we’re leaving those behind,” he told me. “This was not a an easy thing to do, and it wasn’t a decision we made lightly, but I hope that underscores the egregiousness of this redistricting power grab in Texas.”
Governor Greg Abbott’s recent calls to expel and arrest the fleeing Democratic lawmakers isn’t an empty threat to Talarico. “If the governor is able to remove his political opponents, you know, we’re walking down a dangerous road,” he said.
While Talarico characterises the kind of mid-decade redistricting that’s happening in Texas as “the rot at the core of our broken political system”, he said that it may be the only resort available for Democrats if Texas Republicans do push through their new map. “If one side is intent on cheating, the other side has to respond, and it would be malpractice not to,” he said after I pressed him about Governor Gavin Newsom’s plans for California.
Ultimately, Talarico is hopeful that the spotlight on the redistricting battle in Texas is forcing people to “wake up” to Donald Trump’s attempt to “shield himself from voters”.
He’s worried he’s going to lose the midterms. He’s worried that he’s going to lose it his majority in Congress. Because he’s wrecking the economy, he’s starting wars, he’s protecting pedophiles, he’s kicking billions of people off their health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And by rigging this map in Texas he’s trying to shield from accountability.
Jasmine Crockett, representative for Texas’s 30th congressional district, and Texas State representative Ron Reynolds closed out today’s press conference, vowing that Democrats will keep “speaking truth to power” and defending marginalized communities’ right to vote.
“Do whatever you can to support these heroes, because they are the ones that have to leave their families. They are the ones that have warrants out for their arrest. They are the ones that are doing things that honestly, a lot of other people do not have the audacity to do,” said Crockett.
Democratic Texas lawmakers called efforts to create a new congressional map designed to give the GOP five additional seats in the US House next year “racist” and designed to silence minority voices.
“One vote makes a difference, and in Texas, they are trying to silence five democratic voices in the Congress of the United States of America,” said Texas Congressman Al Green. “There are no circumstances that will prevent me from continuing to challenge the bigotry emanating from the presidency and policy.”
“Our sleeves are rolled up, and we’re ready to take this fight wherever it’s going to take us, because our communities, our state and our nation is definitely worth fighting for,” said Texas State representative Jessica González. “We have not had real discussions about providing folks relief who are in desperate need of it. And so we’re just not going to stand for it. We’re tired of it, and we’re not gonna let let them do that to our communities.”
Texas congresswoman Julie Johnson said: “I never thought as a Texan, as an elected member of the Texas House of Representatives, and now as an elected member from Texas to the United States House of Representatives, that I would see the governor of the proud state of Texas bend a knee to a felon from New York. Never thought I’d see the day, but here we are.”
Texas House Democrats who fled to Illinois over the weekend are now holding a press conference in Chicago. They left Texas on Sunday to block a Republican-led redistricting plan that would create five additional GOP-leaning districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans fell short of a quorum today by eight votes after Democrats fled to Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere.
“I want you to know that you are welcome in Illinois,” said Illinois congresswoman Robin Kelly. “Stay as long as you want. Whatever we can do to make your stay more comfortable, we want to do that because we believe in what you’re doing.”
Reporting from Austin, Texas, Roque Planas covers congressman Greg Casar’s picket outside the Governor’s Mansion:
A few dozen protesters gathered in front of the governor’s mansion in Austin on Monday to protest the Republicans’ hasty rewriting of the state’s congressional districts.
Led by Democratic congressmen Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, protesters marched back and forth across the parking lot in front of the gates of the Governor’s mansion.
Speaking into a bullhorn, Casar, a leading progressive, praised state Democrats for fleeing the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need to pass a new congressional map that would sharply dilute Democratic voting strength in an effort to preserve a Republican majority in next year’s congressional midterms.
President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to “prevent maps like this,” Casar said.
“We’re going to fight like hell to stop it,” he said. “We’re not going back to pre-1965.”
“That’s what tyranny looks like,” Doggett added, pointing toward the mansion.
“I see him basically as an errand boy for President Trump,” Doggett said of the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott. “He didn’t ask for this map, he’s just following orders.”
The group chanted slogans like “Whose seats? Our seats!” as they paced along a stretch perhaps 40 yards of concrete.
“Let’s hear from the folks who want flood relief instead of redistricting!” Casar shouted as they marched.
California governor vows to ‘fight fire with fire’ as state prepares ballot initiative to counter Texas GOP redistricting
Lauren Gambino
California governor Gavin Newsom vowed to “fight fire with fire”, as a showdown over the Republican-led effort to redraw Texas’s congressional maps in the party’s favor escalated.
At a press conference on Monday, Newsom said the state’s Democratic leaders were in the process of preparing a ballot initiative asking California voters to enact new Congressional maps if – and only if – Texas moves forward with its effort – sought by Donald Trump – to add five more GOP-leaning House seats before the upcoming midterms. Newsom said any proposal from California would “more than” off-set those Republican gains in Texas.
“We will punch above our weight, and it will have profound national implications,” the governor warned, adding: “These folks don’t play by the rules. If they can’t win playing the game with the existing set of rules, they’ll change the rules.”
Newsom said he supported the state’s independent redistricting commission, and still believed it should serve as a national model to avoid partisan map-making. But he said the nearly 250-year American project was on the line.
“We’re not drawing lines to draw lines. We’re holding the line on democracy, on the rule of law,” the governor said. “This is not an intellectual exercise.”
He said the ballot measure would only move forward if Texas redrew its maps as proposed. “It’s cause and effect, triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn’t occur in Texas,” Newsom said. “I hope they do the right thing, and if they do, then there’ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.”
Newsom said he was confident that the state legislature would be able to get a measure on the ballot by November, and believed voters would approve the request given the “ existential realities that we’re now facing”.
“Things have changed. Facts have changed. So we must change,” Newsom said.
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, directed federal prosecutors to move forward with an inquiry into accusations that members of the Obama administration manufactured intelligence about Russia’s 2016 election interference, CNN reported.
The grand jury would have the authority to issue subpoenas and potentially recommend indictments if the justice department decides there is enough evidence for a criminal case.
The investigation centers on allegations that Democratic officials falsely accused Donald Trump’s campaign of colluding with Russia as a tactic to damage him during the 2016 election.
The move comes after a referral from director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who declassified documents in July that she alleges undermine the Obama administration’s conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
The US Food and Drug Administration announced today that Sean Keveney has been appointed as its new chief counsel, who is responsible for overseeing all legal matters at the agency.
Keveney previously served as acting general counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services, where he led legal efforts to advance administration priorities and regulatory reforms under the “make America healthy again” agenda. He sent a letter to Harvard earlier this year demanding that the university make a series of policy changes in order to continue to receive federal funding.
Before his time at HHS, he spent nearly 16 years in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.
Keveney succeeds Robert Foster, who had been serving as interim chief counsel after the sudden resignation of Hilary Perkins. Perkins stepped down just two days after her appointment was announced, following criticism from Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who labeled her “pro-abortion” and supportive of vaccine mandates.
The United States and Rwanda have agreed for the African country to potentially accept hundreds of migrants deported from the US, Reuters reports.
The agreement, signed by US and Rwandan officials in Kigali in June, allows Rwanda to accept up to 250 migrants. A Rwandan official told Reuters that Washington has already provided an initial list of 10 people for vetting.
“Rwanda has agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants, in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation,” said the spokesperson for the Rwandan government, Yolande Makolo.
Makolo added: “Under the agreement, Rwanda has the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement. Those approved will be provided with workforce training, healthcare and accommodation support to jumpstart their lives in Rwanda, giving them the opportunity to contribute to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world over the last decade.”
The congressional budget office (CBO) informed Jeff Merkley, the Senate budget committee ranking member, in a letter Monday that Trump’s tax and spending cut bill would add $5tn to the deficit over the next decade if its temporary tax relief provisions are extended for 10 years.
The letter comes after the CBO released an analysis last month showing that the bill will add $3.4tn to the debt.
The CBO projects that making temporary provisions like the tax exemption on tipped wages up to $25,000 and the $6,000 senior deduction permanent would increase the debt by an additional $789bn over the next decade.
Including another $718bn in debt-servicing costs, the total price tag for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would approach $5tn over 10 years. Merkely said in a statement:
Each and every analysis from the nonpartisan congressional budget office continues to show the same result regardless of how you look at it: this bill explodes the debt by trillions of dollars to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Republicans can’t spin the fact that this bill is bad policy that kicks more than 15 million people off of their health insurance, will force millions of kids to go hungry, and explodes the national debt by $5 trillion over the next 10 years – pushing the cost of this bill onto future generations to ensure billionaires can pay less in taxes.
Greg Abbott orders the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state
The Texas governor ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial vote on new congressional maps.
“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans,” Abbott said in a statement. “By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty.”
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber. To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas department of public safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”
Abbott said the order will remain in effect until “all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol”.
Texas House reconvenes without quorum as Democrats flee state
George Chidi
Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.
When the legislature gaveled in at 3pm local time on Monday, Republicans fell short of a quorum by eight votes after Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere.
Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.
The Texas speaker, Representative Dustin Burrows, adjourned the house until 1pm on Tuesday after issuing a call for absent lawmakers and threatening their arrest. He cited pending legislation on flood relief and human trafficking – and not the contentious redistricting proposal before the chamber – in his call for Democrats to return.
Instead of confronting those challenges, some of our colleagues have fled the state in their duty. They’ve left the state, abandoned their posts and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent. They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened arrest, fines, felony charges of bribery and expulsion against the lawmakers.
Real Texans do not run from a fight. This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3pm on Monday, August 4, 2025.”
Here’s the full story by George Chidi, The Guardian’s politics and democracy reporter:
Transgender women seeking to compete in women’s sports will now face new visa restrictions under an immigration policy update announced today by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Under the revised policy, USCIS will consider “the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women” as a negative factor when evaluating visa petitions in categories such as the O-1A for extraordinary ability, EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for highly skilled workers and national interest waivers.
“USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” said Matthew Tragesser, a USCIS spokesperson.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee last month updated its policy to align with an executive order signed earlier this year by Trump barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
House Democrats sign on to Palestinian statehood letter
More than a dozen Democratic members of congress have signed on to a letter – addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio – that calls for the United States to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft seen by the Guardian.
Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter, and is joined by several House progressives. Including Congressman Greg Casar of Texas and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
“This is the moment for the United States to officially recognise a Palestinian state,” Khanna said in a statement. “Over 147 countries have recognised a Palestinian state, soon to include France, Britain, Canada and Australia. We cannot be isolated from the rest of the free world.”
Khanna’s office told the Guardian that the letter will be sent out after 16 September.
