It is Sunday, August 3rd.

I'm Ali Velshi.

We begin this hour with the week ahead, which may see the escalation of an arms race

that could threaten our representative democracy.

A new congressional map for the state of Texas, which aggressively gerrymanders five seats

that are currently held by Democrats

in favor of Republicans, has just been advanced by a legislative committee in the Texas House this

weekend. It's set for a vote either tomorrow or Tuesday. Now, Texas State Democrats are mulling their

options, including leaving the state altogether to prevent a quorum and deny a vote. They did that in another

fight over redistricting back in 2021, but Texas Republicans have since imposed heavy fines for lawmakers

who leave the state to break quorum. Right outside the committee hearing room, 15 hours of

public testimony on the map almost entirely against the changes. The chair of the redistricting

committee, Republican State Representative Cody Vasut, told reporters right out in the open what this is all

about. I have not seen any evidence that this map was racially based. What I have seen is evidence

that this map was politically based. And that's totally legal, totally allowed, and totally fair. This bill was not based off of that

DOJ letter. This bill was based off of improving political performance. Improving political performance.

Why knock on doors? Why campaign? Why shake hands? Why kiss babies when you can simply redraw the lines

to guarantee that you'll win. Now, usually congressional redistricting happens after a U.S. census is conducted at the start of every

decade to account for demographic changes, which are necessary. But next year is a midterm year

when the party controlling Washington historically loses seats in the midterm elections.

President Donald Trump has urged Texas and other red states like Missouri and Ohio to take

up mid-decade redistricting efforts in order to create additional Republican seats and to shore up

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