Like a lot of millennials who came of age during the George W. Bush presidency, there's one thing I just know to be true about the lone star state.

Don't mess with Texas.

Just for the record, I am not messing with Texas, but I'm starting to feel like maybe this

is a one-sided relationship because I'm getting the sense that Texas has no problems messing

with everyone else.

Yeah, I feel like I kind of have PTSD from that phrase as well because I've covered a lot of messes in Texas over the years

and what's happening now is the latest iteration of that.

That's Ari Berman from Mother Jones.

If you ask me, Ari is the voting rights expert.

If there's anything happening that impacts our relationship to our

elected representatives, Ari's reporting is the easiest way to figure out what's going on. So when I saw

news that dozens of Democratic state lawmakers were fleeing Texas, seeking refuge in places like

Illinois and New York, I knew we needed R.A. to bring us up to

speed. They left the state to prevent Republicans in the legislature from passing a new

redistricting map that would give Republicans up to five new U.S. House seats.

Gerrymandering is old news.

It's when state lawmakers draw their congressional districts to group specific voters together.

Done successfully, the party and power can score way more seats in Congress than they would

otherwise.

The reason we're talking about this now is because states typically redraw their congressional

maps every 10 years, and Texas, just like everyone else, had their map certified in 2021.

But because the U.S. House of Representatives is so evenly divided, national Republicans are

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