Texas Governor Gregg Abbott now says he will extend his standoff with state Democrats over redistricting as long as necessary.

Stephanie Sy has our conversation with a Republican Texas lawmaker central to the debate over the dividing lines.

Omna, Texas State House is stuck in a political stalemate.

The Republican effort is being pushed by President Trump and Governor Abbott, who called

the special session.

On the agenda, flood relief, but also passing a new electoral map that could yield Republicans

up to five additional congressional seats.

Democrats cried foul, and they're trying to run out the clock

by staying out of Texas. Joining us now is Texas State Representative Carl Tepper, who sits on

the redistricting committee and help draw that proposed map. Representative Tepper, thank you so

much for joining the program. So I heard a local radio interview you did last month where you outright said that the crux of this special session was about redistricting.

In fact, you said, quote, the Trump administration wants to see if we can squeeze out two, maybe five congressional districts, Republican districts in Texas. That seems

like a pretty honest explanation of the goal here. Am I right? Well, you know, you might as well

put the facts out there as they exist. Trump challenged us to find some more congressional seats,

and I'm with him. I think we should have done it in the past.

I'm glad he's motivated to get here, and I see fit to give it a try.

Democrat states have also, in the past, been accused of drawing congressional maps to their advantage.

We hear a lot about Illinois, New York, California. But wouldn't you say that what you're doing is unusual?

You're redistricting several years early. How is this not an attempt to rig the system ahead of the

midterms? Well, I'm going to push back against the term rigged. I think the system has been rigged

against us and we're just responding. You represent Lubbock. That's in Western Texas. That part of Texas, from what I understand,

would not be affected by this new map. But I understand the parts that would be affected are big

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