LEILA FADEL, HOST:
As California lawmakers push to approve a new congressional map, Democrats in Texas have ended a two-week walkout. One of those Democrats is Representative Mihaela Plesa. She's the vice chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, and she joins me now. Good morning and thank you for being on the program.
MIHAELA PLESA: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.
FADEL: So the walkout is over, but the reason for that walkout is not. Republicans are still planning to vote to redraw congressional maps in their favor. So what did this walkout actually accomplish?
PLESA: Well, this walkout accomplished two things, right? First, we were victorious in being able to kill the first called special session that the governor called that we saw was really just focused on power grabs that Donald Trump asked our governor for. And the second is that we started really a nationwide movement. We've woken people up to what's happening, not just in Texas but around our country. And we're getting people involved. Really, this is their representation that's at stake. And so I'm just really proud to have met this moment and started this movement.
FADEL: OK, so national attention was something that was gained. But the proposed redistricting is still on the table and is expected to pass. So what are Texas Democrats planning to do next?
PLESA: Well, we had to come home for the legal battle, right? Our election experts told us that we, too, are on tight deadlines to make sure that these maps make it in the courts and they're litigated on. We feel very confident after we just saw the Fifth Circuit Court in Louisiana rule against a Louisiana redistricting map that was racially gerrymandered. And so we have to go back to the House floor. We have to make the legal arguments on the House floor during legislative debate as to why these are racially gerrymandered maps. And we hope that when it makes it to the Fifth Circuit Court, they, too, will find in favor that these maps were racially gerrymandered and stop this power grab.
FADEL: So your faith is with the courts. I wanted to ask you about California, though, which we just heard about. Democrats there are moving to redraw congressional maps in response to what's happening in your state. It's basically mirroring the effort to give Democrats more seats in California if Texas does what it's doing. What do you make of that?
PLESA: Well, I think that Democrats have to meet fire with fire, right? If Republicans are choosing to change the rules in the middle of the game, Democrats have to be willing to play the new game. Look, we have always been for independent redistricting commissions. Every time we see Democrats take the gavel or take a governorship, they move to make our maps more fair, whether it's including independent redistricting committees in state constitutions like California does, or they make the system more arduous to change these maps like New York has done.
And so we have always played by the rules. I think our fear is that Donald Trump isn't playing by any rules. And our concern is that if he is able to be successful in this power grab, we will see more big bad bills. We'll see more cuts in Medicaid and Medicare. We'll see, you know, Social Security be done away with. And we might even see national abortion bans go through.
FADEL: And really quickly, you lead a politically divided district in a Dallas suburb. What have your constituents been telling you?
PLESA: I represent one of the only swing districts out of 150 districts in the House, and my constituents don't want us to be representatives of Donald Trump. They want us to listen to their needs. Texas just suffered a catastrophic flood. We lost over 130 people. Children were in that number. We should be focused on those people and their loss. We have a state where we're one of the lowest in per pupil funding for public education, and we need to be focused on those issues.
FADEL: We'll have to leave it there. That is Democratic state representative Mihaela Plesa of Texas. Thank you so much for your time.
PLESA: Thank you.
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