Texas Dems Fight to Stop GOP Power Grab

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FEATURING REP. CASSANDRA GARCIA HERNANDEZ OF TEXAS - The GOP-controlled Texas Legislature has just begun a new special session this week, intending to push through new district maps to increase the state’s GOP representation in the House and further cement the conservative party’s majority. 

After a weeks-long standoff, during which Texas Democrats left to break quorum, their Republican colleagues threatened them with arrest. Gov. Greg Abbott accused legislators of bribery and warned they would face felony charges and removal. 

Now, Democratic legislators are being forced to sign letters agreeing to round-the-clock security by state troopers to ensure they return to the state house.

I spoke with Texas Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez of District 115 on Tuesday August 19 about what was happening in Texas.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Welcome to the program. 

Cassandra Garcia Hernandez: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. 

Kolhatkar: Tell me first, what exactly is happening this week. This new special session, a lot is changing really fast. Can you explain what the GOP is trying to do and whether the reports are true that they're having folks like yourself sign off on round the clock security? 

Hernandez: Absolutely. So as far as what has been going on this week we saw on Monday all of us who had left the state in order to sound the alarm on the power grab of five congressional districts, essentially being gerrymandered in order to give Trump the edge and the victory in the next election handed to him, essentially from our governor. 

We saw a lot of us that had left the state to fight that and sound that alarm return on Monday to which we ended up learning that in fact, we in order to essentially leave, to have the ability to walk off the floor and do our business in our districts to see our families and to prepare for the fight this week on the redistrict gerrymandered maps that we would essentially have to sign permission slips and have a DPS officials essentially follow us to wherever it is that we needed to do and to be present whenever we were doing business, no matter what it was.