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People protest a proposal to redraw congressional districts outside the Texas governor’s mansion in Austin, Texas, on Aug. 4, 2025. (AP/Yonhap)

By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondent

Democratic legislators from Texas gathered one by one at the airport on Sunday evening (local time). After making a discreet exit on a private jet, they held a press conference in Chicago, Illinois. “We may not be in Texas, but we’re fighting for our constituents,” said Rep. James Talarico of the Texas State House.
 
Gerrymandering. A word that many Koreans have only ever read in textbooks is quickly becoming a key feature of US politics after US President Donald Trump ordered Texas lawmakers to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines in the Republican Party’s favor after deeming that he would have an easier time as president if the Republicans keep their majority in Congress in next year’s elections.
 
Texas has 38 seats in the US House — the second largest number of seats any state currently holds. Of those 38 seats, 12 are held by Democrats. Trump’s goal in reshaping Texas’ districts would help Republicans pick up at least five more seats in the House. As the Republicans just barely outnumber the Democrats in the House of Representatives by seven seats, five additional seats could be a pivotal number that sways the power structure within US politics.
 
The Texas State Legislature made the first move. The results of the reshaping of the state’s congressional districts, which took place in secret, were made public in late July. These proposed maps revealed five carefully crafted Republican strongholds. Democrat-dominated metropolitan areas such as Austin, Houston and Dallas would be cut up and remolded into solidly red districts. The new maps were works of art in that the five redrawn districts and the existing Republican incumbent districts showed that if that map had been put in place in 2024, Trump’s vote share in the 2024 presidential election would’ve exceeded 60%. There is no denying the intent behind this decision.
 
Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, promptly convened a special legislative session and submitted the bill that proposed this change, leading Texas Democrats, who have the power to break quorum with 62 out of 150 seats in the Texas State Legislature, to plan and carry out a mass exodus. In Texas, electoral districts are finalized after the state Senate and House of Representatives pass the electoral district plan and the governor signs it into law.
 
Will the Democrats be able to stop Texas? The fight will not be an easy one. The Texas State House of Representatives has issued accompanying orders for absent lawmakers, prompting them to flee the state. The lawmakers who broke quorum are due to pay a daily fine of US$500 — for context, the part-time Texas state legislators only receive a US$600 monthly salary. The special legislative session, which is to come to an end at the end of August, can be reconvened by the governor. Time is on the Republicans’ side.
 
New York and California, both Democratic strongholds, find the situation urgent enough to warrant action. California may find it difficult to redistrict its congressional lines, but it will be able to use a referendum to address the issue of gerrymandering before next year’s midterm elections. The five seats lost to Republicans in Texas could be regained in California. But will losing five seats in Texas and regaining them in California be the end of this problem?
 
This may only give rise to even more heightened conflict. Excessive gerrymandering by both parties could erase swing states from the US map. We will see more politicians relying on the safe districts created by gerrymandering. The number of lawmakers representing moderate voters will decrease. 

US politics may be entering a critical point in time where cooperation is impossible, and the very foundation of democracy is oscillating: a situation far more precarious than the outcome of the upcoming midterm election.

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