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As Texas Republicans move forward with a radical redistricting scheme, opening a new chapter in “unconstrained partisan warfare,” it’s worth remembering that the partisan gambit wasn’t their idea. Rather, it was Donald Trump and his White House team that directed GOP officials in the Lone Star State to rig — or more to the point, rig even more — their district lines.
The president elaborated on his vision during his latest appearance on CNBC. Appearing via phone, the Republican told viewers:
We have a really good governor [Republican Greg Abbott], and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.
When host Joe Kernan hedged on whether Trump actually broke the record for the best electoral performance in Texas’ 180-year history, the president was insistent. “Check it. Check it,” the president said, adding, “I’d like you to. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas. Okay? By a lot.”
We’re obviously well past the point where factual details matter to the White House, but since Trump invited the scrutiny, it’s worth noting that his 2024 performance in Texas was quite underwhelming. Yes, he easily carried the state with 56% of the vote, and yes, it’d be foolish to downplay a 14-point margin of victory, but in terms of political history, 56% is hardly record-breaking.
Mitt Romney did better in Texas in 2012. George W. Bush did better in his adopted home state in 2004 and 2000. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman also all topped 56% in the Lone Star State.
I suppose it’s possible that Trump was referring to his raw popular vote totals, but that’s a rather silly metric given population growth. It’d be like saying Michael Dukakis was a more impressive candidate than FDR because Dukakis received 41 million votes, while Roosevelt only received 27 million votes. Those tallies are technically accurate, but given that the nation was much smaller in the 1930s than in the 1980s, the figures are also irrelevant.
In other words, Trump said he’d put up the best performance in Texas of any presidential candidate in 180 years, and he was off by 168 years.
But just as importantly (if not more so) was the Republican’s other claim. “[W]e are entitled to five more seats,” the president said, as a result of the electoral triumph that happened only in his imagination.
As the Texas scheme unfolds, GOP partisans aren’t running around explicitly saying, “We’re indifferent to democracy, so we’re trying to rig elections so that voters’ choices are largely irrelevant,” because that would be impolitic. Instead, they tend to peddle insincere talking points about the value of “competitive” races.
Trump didn’t bother with the pretense. On the contrary, he again said the quiet part loud: He feels “entitled” to a partisan reward, and he expects Texas Republicans to give it to him.
This isn’t how the political system is supposed to work in the U.S., but our incumbent president clearly doesn’t care.