Democratic Sen. Warns If GOP Goes 'Nuclear' With Texas Redistricting, She Will 'Go Nuclear In Other Places'

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Democratic Sen. Elisa Slotkin warned that if Republicans move forward with a plan to redistrict Texas she will "go nuclear" elsewhere, echoing claims made by other prominent party lawmakers.

Speaking at an event organized by Axios, Slotkin said Republicans are "trying to pick their borders, to redraw the lines in the middle of the decade so they have more seats." "It's very open and obvious. In Michigan we felt so strongly about gerrymandering and how bad it is when politicians get to draw their own districts that we passed a constitutional amendment, wildly bipartisan."

The senator went on to say that "If they're going to go nuclear in Texas, I'm going to go nuclear in other places." "I'm not going to fight with one arm tied behind my back.Ii don't want to do that, but if they're proposing to rig the game, we're going to get in that game and fight," she added.

Comments of the kind have also been made by California Governor Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The former warned that "two can play that game" when reacting to the possibility. "It's all on the table when democracy is on the line," he added.

"We may have a higher moral ground, but the ground is shifting from underneath us, and I think we have to wake up to that reality," Newsom said in an interview with Pod Save America.

He went on to suggest that his administration could use different tactics to retaliate to Trump's agenda, including calling special sessions, special elections, ballot initiatives and creating new laws.

President Donald Trump said earlier this month that he would push Texas to re-draw its congressional districts to benefit his own party ahead of the midterm elections. The Texas GOP-controlled legislature is scheduled to begin a special session during which it will consider new congressional maps to further marginalize Democrats in the state.

"Texas will be the biggest one. And that'll be five," Trump said after he was asked about the possibility of adding GOP-friendly districts around the country.

Trump's allusion to "other states" likely includes Ohio, which is required by law to draw congressional maps this year and could give Republicans up to three more seats. It is unclear which other states he sees as opportunities for midterm pickups, Politico reported.

Redistricting is a constitutionally mandated process for redrawing political districts after the once-a-decade census to ensure they have equal populations. But there is no prohibition against rejiggering maps between censuses, and sometimes court rulings have made that mandatory. The wave of voluntary mid-decade redistricting that Trump is encouraging, however, is unusual, The Associated Press noted.

In this context, AOC backed redistricting in Democratic states if Republicans move forward. "If Republicans want to play by these rules, we shouldn't have one set of rules for one and one for another. We need an even board but ideally what happens is that Texas preserves their lines as they voted," she added.