For more on Texas Democrats' efforts to block mid-decade redistricting in the state,

we're joined now by State Representative James Talariko, who's currently in Illinois.

Thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

Texas Democrats broke quorum back in 2003 to block redistricting, and again in 2021 to stop new voting laws.

Both efforts ultimately failed. They were not successful. Why do you

believe this effort could succeed where the others fell short? Well, I'd actually like to disagree with

that. I was part of the 2021 walkout when we broke quorum to fight back against the Republicans

voter suppression bill. They were trying to make it even harder to vote in Texas,

and Texas is one of the hardest places to vote in the entire country.

And by breaking quorum and shining a national spotlight on their bill,

we pressured our Republican colleagues to take the worst parts of that bill out.

So a ban on Souls to the Polls, which is early Sunday morning

voting when African American churches usually go to vote, a provision that would have allowed

Republicans to overturn election results that they didn't like. Those were taken out of the bill

because of our quorum break. And so while the bill did pass and I voted against that bill, it was less harmful than it would have been without the quorum break. And so while the bill did pass and I voted against that bill,

it was less harmful than it would have been without the quorum break. So these kinds of

acts of civil disobedience of good trouble, they can have a tangible impact on legislation

and therefore a tangible impact on people's lives. I'm hopeful we can do something like that with

this redistricting power grab that Trump is trying to execute in our state.

Governor Abbott says he may try to remove you and your Democratic colleagues from office.

He may try to appoint your replacements. And then beyond that, he says that any fundraising

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