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Indivisible Rochester plans to protest Saturday in solidarity against the gerrymandering efforts of Texas Republicans.
In that GOP-controlled state, there is an ongoing attempt to redraw electoral districts mid-decade, instead of coinciding with the census survey in 2030. Drafts of the redraw show that Democratic Party voters will be packed into districts, letting Republicans pick up five additional congressional seats in the next election cycle.
This could allow President Donald Trump, who pressured the state to attempt a redrawing, and the Republican Party to maintain a thin majority in Congress.
“(It is) a virtually unprecedented move, to effectively choose its own voters instead of letting voters choose their representatives in 2026,” says Janice Bullard, an organizer with Indivisible Rochester. “Many of the redraws target communities of color, so voices will be further marginalized. Trump knows that fair congressional races in 2026 will provide a powerful check on his efforts to build a dictatorship.”
In an attempt to prevent this redraw, Texas Democratic lawmakers left the state, preventing a quorum from being reached in the legislature. The Texas House issued warrants for the lawmakers in retaliation, which were largely symbolic, as they applied only within state lines.
It was recently reported that those Democrats are planning to return on advice from their lawyers and the redistricting effort will continue.
“The efforts won’t stop in Texas,” Bullard says. “The fight is not over and is expected to play out in many states, so Trump’s attempt to steal Congress will remain an important focus for anyone fighting for democracy.”
Already, redistricting attempts have begun or been suggested in seven other states: Ohio, Missouri, California, Florida, Indian, Illinois, and New York. Several of these are retaliatory attempts by Democratic lawmakers to offset the seats that will be gained by Republicans in Texas.
Saturday’s protest is Indivisible Rochester’s first protest since late April and was organized on short notice after a call by the national Indivisible group to support “the courage of the Texas Democrats.”
“We don’t expect a massive crowd as we saw for, say, the Hands Off rally at Cobbs Hill by any means,” says Bullard. “But we know that concern about Trump’s authoritarian breakthrough is not waning and groups are working on many strategies.”
Indivisible is primarily known for organizing rallies against Trump administration actions. The Rochester “Hands Off” rally in April drew as many as 3,000 people to protest a grab bag of issues including cuts to Medicaid, Social Security, and research funding, attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities, the Department of Government Efficiency-related federal employee firings, and more.
The group also says that protests are just one of the many strategies it promotes. Bullard encourages people to get involved however they can with democracy-supporting organizations and believes that the rally held this weekend can move the needle in that direction. Similar events were planned by different groups in Brockport, Seneca Falls and other communities.
“As people see institutions comply with outrageous Trump demands, more and more are looking for ways to step forward. We believe that as more people see that they’re not alone in opposing the destructive power grab, they will join in this vital form of political expression and help with more grassroots organizing and coalition building,” she says. “We hope that our elected officials, as well as business and community leaders, feel encouraged in fighting authoritarianism.”
The protest will be held on the corner of East Avenue and Winton Road on Saturday, from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
I’m not getting sucking in by either parties shenanigans. They run for elections, get elected and then instead of governing just run for election again. It’s maddening. But not to worry our enemies a lying in wait. Sooner or later they will just walk in and take control. NYC is a great example. The beginning of the end. Don’t doubt me on this. SEMPER FI.
Really? By all means tell us who the “enemy” is that has walked in and taken control of NYC. We can use the laughs.
It’s so unfair. The Democrat never do that. Er…look at Chicago, maybe Massachusetts. This constant bickering, all this energy by both parties could be better used for leadership and getting things done. The only thing that does get done is getting elected and then…running again. If this was a business it would have imploded long ago.
As the Great W.C. Fields said, you can’t cheat an honest man. The electorate is fully complicit in the power grabs by both parties.
This is only the tip of the iceberg of ways by which the GOP might seek to implement a seizure of permanent control of the House and Senate.
For example, Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution states that, “”Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members”. Under this Exclusion Rule, in the past the House and Senate have refused for various reasons to seat individuals chosen by the electorate. And although the Supreme Court’s 1969 decision in Powell v. McCormack that the Exclusion Rule could only be invoked in cases where the elected individual did not meet the specific constitutional requirements of age, citizenship or residency, it requires no stretch of the imagination to foresee that following the 2026 elections, the GOP could trot out their shop-worn claims of voter fraud and refuse to seat Democrats who won in tight elections, taking the matter to the current demagogue-friendly Supreme Court seeking the overturning of the 1969 decision and a freer hand to determine the out come in contested elections.
Another more dramatic GOP power grab would be the invoking by the State of Texas of the clause in the 1845 Congressional Joint Resolution of Annexation granting them the authority to split the state into additional states, to a maximum of four new mini-Texases. The passage of subsequent acts of Congress have muddied the waters as to whether that right still exists and whether Texas could do so uniltaterally or would require congressional approval. But with the possibility of adding from 2 to 8 new GOP senators to Congress, and only the benediction of a supine Supreme Court needed to give them the necessary authority, it’s difficult to see how the Trumpublican Party could resist the temptation.