00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes.
00:07Joining me now is Texas State Representative Brian Harrison.
00:10Representative, thank you so much for joining me.
00:13Great to be with you.
00:14It's great to have you because you have a unique perspective on what exactly is happening in the Lone Star State right now.
00:21Republican lawmakers in Texas, like yourself, are attempting to pass a large redistricting effort.
00:26And what you're trying to do is get a redrawn congressional map that would help the GOP potentially flip five congressional seats in the House past.
00:35But Democrats in the state's House have since fled the state.
00:39They have left to avoid a quorum that would be needed to have this vote.
00:43So to start off this conversation, I mean, what are your thoughts on what exactly is happening with your colleagues right now and in the state of Texas?
00:50Well, I have a lot of thoughts on this.
00:52Yeah, the Democrats fled.
00:54They're cynical, dishonest, cowardly.
00:58They're running up to Illinois, hiding behind Governor Pritzker.
01:01And the irony of that is quite literally impossible to overstate.
01:05Illinois might be the most gerrymandered state in the country.
01:09I mean, I think there's probably only one thing that Governor Pritzker is qualified to talk about, and that's how to gerrymander a state.
01:14I mean, for crying out loud, two years ago, the Illinois legislature redrew their maps.
01:19And even though Republicans make up 45% of the vote, I think they gave them 15% of the congressional delegation.
01:27So that's the background here.
01:28People are acting, you know, all across the country.
01:30People are acting like this is some new, novel, you know, crazy, never-before-done thing that Texas is contemplating doing here.
01:38But that's just avoided, that's missing all of the context and all the history of how we got here.
01:43And I'll give you just one data point on that.
01:45Ten years ago, nine or ten years ago, in, I think it was 2016, when, in the elections that year, Republicans had a 1% majority in the popular vote in the U.S. House.
01:56But we had a 45-seat advantage that year.
02:00Now, juxtapose that against just last year, where Republicans actually expanded the percentage of the popular vote in the U.S. House.
02:08I think it was around 3%.
02:09The share of Republican seats, the majority, fell to only, I think, two or three seats.
02:17Well, why did this happen?
02:17This happened because Democrat states, like Illinois, where our Democrat, my Democrat colleagues are hanging out, and New York and California and other places, have been radically redistricting their maps to give them a massive partisan political advantage.
02:36So, yes, the state of Texas should do this.
02:38Quite frankly, I think we should have done it by now.
02:40If we're going to do it this year, we should have done it in the regular session.
02:43And this should already have been done, and quite frankly, I think it would have happened if the Republican leadership in the state of Texas had been much more bold.
02:51I mean, quite frankly, if the Republican leadership in Texas had wanted to, we could have stopped the Democrats from leaving in the first place.
02:56So there's lots of blame to go around here.
02:58But I fully support the redistricting effort.
03:00Quite frankly, Texas should have done it before now.
03:02And to your point, I know that redistricting isn't a Republican issue.
03:08As you said, Illinois has redistricted themselves.
03:11But do you think – I know it sounds like you aren't a proponent of that.
03:15So do you think that there should be some sort of nonpartisan way to do districts nationwide?
03:21Should there be AI involved or something like that?
03:23Well, people keep taking this out of context.
03:26I mean, I went back and forth with CNN, for example, numerous times on this yesterday.
03:29People keep trying to say, well, I have said something about Illinois.
03:31The only thing I'm saying about Illinois, the only reason I bring up Illinois is maps.
03:35I mean, look, the Constitution of the United States leave these matters to the states.
03:40And it's incumbent upon the state legislature to draw the map that their voters want.
03:45So I'm actually not weighing – I haven't weighed in on what Illinois has done.
03:48The reason I bring up Illinois and California and New York who have done the exact same thing
03:53is to point out the rank hypocrisy of the way the national media is covering what Republicans are trying to do here in Texas
04:00or how they're covering what President Trump thinks that we should do in Texas.
04:05And President Trump is exactly right to ask Texas to do this.
04:08The reason I bring that up is to say that Democrat state after Democrat state after Democrat state
04:13for year after year after year have been doing not only just what Texas is contemplating doing,
04:18but has been doing a much more aggressive version of it.
04:22I mean, what we're talking about in Texas doesn't even come close to what the Democrats have done in Illinois.
04:28So that's why I bring it up, is to point out the hypocrisy and the fake faux selective outrage
04:33on the part of Democrats and their mouthpieces in the national media.
04:38I think some critics of not just yours, but Texas Republicans would say,
04:43you're just getting your marching orders from Trump.
04:46President Trump wants five more seats in the House and that's what you're doing.
04:50A, and B, is that it's not in a census year.
04:53I mean, what are your rebuttals to that?
04:56Well, I mean, I can't speak to what the leadership of Texas Republicans, what's motivating them.
05:01All I can do is speak for me.
05:02And I'm advocating for this because this is what the people that I work for want us to do.
05:07My constituents want us to redraw these maps and I am working for them.
05:11The voters of Texas want these maps redrawn.
05:13We should get it done.
05:14And we've had a lot, we've had a lot of changes in the last four years.
05:17I mean, the law has changed as specifically, and at least with regard to coalition districts,
05:22we've had massive changes in population and demographics, as well as voter trends.
05:26So the state of Texas has changed, by the way, in all of those ways, bad for the Democrats.
05:32Texas voters, especially Hispanics down in the Rio Grande Valley area and other parts
05:37of Texas, these voters, which by the way, I'm not talking about white voters, these are
05:43Hispanic voters.
05:44They are leaving the Democrat Party in droves because they're seeing the disastrous consequences
05:49of their failed policies.
05:52So yeah, the state of Texas needs to stand up and get this map redistricted.
05:55And quite frankly, we need bolder leadership in the state of Texas that would have prevented
05:58this quorum break in the first place.
06:01I do want to get to that leadership point.
06:02But first, Representative President Trump, as you know, in Texas decisively won in 2024.
06:09But around 40% of voters in Texas did vote Democrat.
06:14I mean, what do you say to them about this map that's being redistricted?
06:17Because that's not just a slim, a slim amount of voters.
06:20I mean, that is a good chunk of voters.
06:22Now, I mean, those constituents, I'm sure, don't want this, the map redrawn this way.
06:27What do you say to them?
06:28Well, I actually would, I might surprise you.
06:30I think it's a fair question.
06:31I'm happy to talk to you about it.
06:32However, I want to know if you or anybody at Forbes ever asked Governor Pritzker or any
06:37Democrat members of the Illinois legislature that question two years ago.
06:40I would be happy.
06:41Did y'all ask them that question?
06:41Listen, I hear you and I've heard you say that in other places.
06:44And Governor Pritzker, if you ever want to come on here, I'd be happy to pose that same
06:48question.
06:49No, no, no, no, no.
06:49Hang on.
06:50I want to know where they asked this when they did it two years ago.
06:54When it was happening, were they asked what their response was to the fact that Republicans
07:00have 45% of the vote in Illinois, but their gerrymandered maps only gave them 15% and what
07:06about the voter repression or suppression of those Republicans?
07:09Can you point me to one member at Forbes or anywhere else at the national media that asked
07:13Democrats in Illinois the question that you just asked me?
07:16Well, I wasn't in this seat during that time.
07:20I would be happy to ask you, but I'm lucky enough today to have you in the seat here and
07:24I'm asking you that question.
07:25So would you be able to answer it?
07:28Well, I don't want to leave this that quickly.
07:31I mean, Forbes has been around a long time.
07:33Did anybody at Forbes ask anybody in the Illinois Democrat Party that question two years ago?
07:37Representative, I'm not sure about that answer.
07:40However, I'm covering breaking news.
07:42This is the breaking news now.
07:45I would be happy to talk about Governor Pritzker and I'm afraid that we are wasting time though
07:49because I asked you that question.
07:51That's what we're talking about today.
07:52That is what I've had you on to talk about and I would be happy to answer that question.
07:56I would also love to get in a time machine and ask Governor Pritzker that question two years
08:00ago if given the opportunity, but I have you today and I would love for you to answer the question.
08:04Well, the answer to the question is super simple.
08:07The people in a democratic republic elect representatives to vote for them, to be their proxy, to be
08:15their voice in all matters of legislation in the legislative branch.
08:20It is the legislative branch in the state of Texas that writes laws and considers bills.
08:25Redistricting maps start as a bill and they become a statute.
08:28That is how it happens.
08:29So in order for us to have a robust debate on that question, I need my Democrat colleagues
08:35to get their butts back to the Texas house so we can have that robust debate on the floor
08:39and let us go back and forth and determine, is this the map that has enough support among
08:46the people's elected representatives in the state of Texas so that we can faithfully execute
08:51the will of the voters of the state of Texas who sent us here and who we work for?
08:57That is who I'm responsible to and that's who I'm fighting on behalf of, including in the
09:02case of this redistricting issue.
09:04Representative, like I said, I don't have a time machine.
09:07I also don't have a crystal ball here, so I can't see when those Democrats exactly come
09:12back.
09:12However, I think they must have to come back between now and the midterms.
09:16I'm sure you would agree with me.
09:18Governor Abbott here, he's saying that they should be arrested.
09:21He wants them arrested.
09:22Do you want your colleagues arrested?
09:23I mean, you want them back here.
09:25How are they going to come back?
09:27Well, I mean, in handcuffs would be great.
09:30Okay.
09:31So that'd be my preference right now.
09:33Yeah, they should be arrested.
09:34They should have been arrested before they left the state.
09:36I mean, our speaker did a call of the House, which is what authorizes the arrest, after
09:41they left.
09:42Yesterday, he put on all this theater, but he had the doors locked to the chamber of the
09:47Texas House.
09:48But the Democrats were not inside the chamber.
09:51So, yeah, there's just a lot of theater happening right now.
09:53The people of Texas don't want theater.
09:56They don't want strongly worded letters.
09:58They want action.
09:59They want results.
10:00And that's what I'm fighting for.
10:02And then when do you think we can expect this debate to happen?
10:05What's next here for these maps?
10:07I don't know.
10:08I mean, the timing, it's either up to the Democrats when they voluntarily return, or it's
10:12up to the elected Republican leadership of the state of Texas when they finally get
10:15around to forcing them to come back.
10:17I mean, yes, of course, of course, this will end.
10:19I mean, everybody knows that this can't last, you know, two years, five years, ten years.
10:22Everybody knows this is going to end at some point.
10:25And so my solution to that is, okay, the Democrats want to play hardball.
10:31Republicans in Texas should maybe for the first time ever play hardball.
10:34And my proposed solution right now is for every one week that they're gone, we redraw the
10:39maps and we add one more Republican seat.
10:41So that's what I'm calling for right now.
10:42The Republican leadership of Texas, if you chose not to stop them from leaving, if you're not
10:45going to arrest them when we're gone, then at least let's do something that they're going
10:49to hate.
10:49And for every week that we're gone, we redraw the maps and we add one more Republican seat.
10:53That's the Harrison proposal that I'm putting on the table right now.
10:56And I'm sure you've had conversations with your Republican colleagues.
10:59Are there other people, other Republicans supporting this Harrison proposal?
11:03I'm talking to people all over the state of Texas.
11:05And I can assure you, since I just put that out on Twitter, I think it was just this morning,
11:10the response has been overwhelming.
11:11People love it.
11:12They are tired of feckless, weak establishment Republicans failing and then blaming the Democrats
11:18for their failures.
11:19And that's exactly what happened here.
11:20The Texas government should have redistricted and we should have had it done long before
11:23now.
11:24Representative Brian Harrison, thank you so much for the time today.
11:26You are welcome back.
11:27I appreciate the conversation.
11:29And in all sincerity, I enjoyed the conversation with you and I look forward to doing it again
11:32soon.
11:46Yay.
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