Governor Kathy Hochul claims Texas Republicans working under President Trump’s direction are staging another illegal insurrection against the U.S. Capitol.
In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle, Hochul wrote that the Republican majority in Texas is carrying out an aggressive power grab to flip as many as five Democratic seats. She likened the redistricting of Texas’ congressional districts to “political arson.”
“What Texas is doing isn't a clever strategy, it’s political arson — torching our democracy to cling to power. The only viable recourse is to fight fire with fire. This isn’t just a Texas issue,” she wrote. “When Republicans rig congressional maps in one state, it weakens representation in every state. Every unfair seat they create tilts Congress further out of balance. If they get away with it now, 2026 will be the first of many stolen elections.”
Hochul added, “I may be governor of New York, but I will not sit on the sidelines with timid souls and merely watch while Republicans dismantle democracy. That’s not who we are. And that is certainly not the leadership that this moment calls for.”
Fifty Texas Democratic lawmakers recently fled to New York to prevent a vote on the redistricting plan. Hochul says she is coordinating with other governors and Democratic leaders to protect and defend democracy using legal and constitutional strategies.
