Texans Love Football, Not Accountability

While 160 people remain missing, Abbott calls a special session to redraw Congressional maps.

Yesterday, when Greg Abbott was asked during a press conference, “Who was to blame for the flood response?” He responded by saying something along the lines of (paraphrasing), “Blame is for losers, Texans love football, Friday night lights, and only losers point fingers.”

He followed up on that statement today by adding Congressional redistricting to the special session, among other things, because nothing says “no time for finger-pointing” like rewriting the political map while 160 people are still missing from a flash flood in Hill Country.

The seats that will be the intended targets are:

• TX09: Al Green

• TX18: Sylvester Turner (now vacant)

• TX29: Sylvia Garcia

• TX33: Marc Veasy

Of course, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that all of these targets are Democrats of color. It should also not be forgotten that the Democrats who spent the last few months fundraising on how they would be the intended target of this aren’t on the list. But that’s neither here nor there.

Three of these are in Harris County, and all three are majority-minority districts. To give you an idea of where they are.

I don’t see how they can do it. More so, they’re basing it on voter data. Harris County’s voter turnout since the last redistricting:

• 2024: 57.83%

• 2022: 42.92%

I haven’t been following the internal politics of the Harris County Democratic Party, but they have faced numerous struggles and experienced poor turnout for years.

Republicans could wind up fucking themselves on this one. But whatever the Harris County Democratic Party has been doing, they really need to do twice as much and twice as hard.

TX33 runs through both Black and brown neighborhoods in Dallas and Tarrant Counties, as well, and is surrounded by Republican districts that are close to flipping, if people show up.

They’re going to try to add four more Republican Congressional seats by eliminating these Democrats, but I don’t see how, without making already competitive Republican districts more competitive. But they’re going to try.

Can Democrats in the Legislature stop them?

We’ve discussed this before here, yet I’ll always end up in an argument on social media about how House Democrats didn’t break quorum to stop them. Republicans changed the rules to fine Democrats $500 per day if they break quorum and allow expulsion, which would allow them to proceed with redistricting anyway.

That doesn’t mean that Democrats are helpless. There are plenty of procedural tools they’ll be able to use to fight back against this so-called “emergency redistricting effort.” They may be able to kill it. But they won’t be able to stop Greg Abbott from calling another session… session after session. He’s done it before.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has previously said that if Abbott calls a special session to do this redistricting, he’ll do the same to balance it out and give Congress more blue seats. In the long run, that may be the only thing that saves us.

And maybe 2026, there’s a blue tsunami and their gerrymandering blows up in their face anyway. We finally get MeidasTouch and Chuck Schumer to care about the John Lewis Voting Rights Act enough that we never have to deal with gerrymandering ever again.

And as long as we’re looking on the brighter side of things, if Republicans are trying to gerrymander now, that means they intend on actually having an election in 2026. 😉

Abbott’s other special session items.

First, related to the flood:

• Improve early warning systems and other preparedness infrastructure in flood-prone areas throughout Texas.

• Strengthen emergency communications and other response infrastructure in flood-prone areas throughout Texas.

• Provide relief funding for response and recovery from the storms.

• Evaluate and streamline rules and regulations to speed preparedness and recovery from natural disasters.

There’s something I’ve struggled with this week, and I think you’ve all seen that in several articles, and that’s how people (especially in blue states) have responded to this tragedy. There hasn’t been much nuance between accountability and outright cruelty. And the finger-pointing (especially from blue states) has been on the Federal Government, but what I think we’ll see in the coming weeks and months is that the most significant failures came from the county and state levels.

Brenna Pérez is a director and producer from New York. Over the last few days, she has spent all her time poring through the transcripts from the Kerr County Commissioner Court. What she learned won’t be surprising for many of us in Texas, especially knowing that Kerr County is 76% (R) county, but it shows classic Republican incompetence.

In 2021, Kerr County received over $10 million in federal relief funds under the American Rescue Plan that could have been allocated toward upgrading the flood warning system. At first, they didn’t want to accept it, because they “didn’t trust the Biden Administration.” However, they ultimately decided against returning the funds, as they didn’t want the money to go to a blue state. They wound up giving almost all the money to the sheriff’s office.

Then, if you missed the latest from

TEXAS RURAL REPORTER

, Suzanne Bellsnyder criticizes the Texas Senate for killing HB13. This bill would have funded warning systems, and she singled out Representative Wes Virdell for voting against it, despite his district now facing disaster.

Bellsnyder has since been under attack on social media for “making this political,” but these types of votes, which would have saved lives, should be called out. Our elected officials should be working to make our lives safer and better, not giving favors to billionaires.

It should be noted that all of the House members who voted against HB13 were on Tim Dunn’s payroll.

The rest of Abbott’s “emergency” items.

• Eliminate the STAAR test.

• Legislation reducing the property tax burden.

• Making it a crime to provide hemp-derived products to children under 21 years of age.

• Comprehensively regulate hemp-derived products.

• Further protecting unborn children and their mothers from the harm of abortion.

• Prohibiting taxpayer-funded lobbying.

• Protects victims of human trafficking.

• Protects law enforcement officers from public disclosure.

• Protecting women’s privacy in sex-segregated spaces.

• Proposing a constitutional amendment allowing the Attorney General to prosecute state election crimes.

• Provides strengthened protections against title theft and deed fraud.

• Authorizes political subdivisions to reduce impact fees for builders who include water conservation and efficiency measures.

• Relating to the operation and administration of the Judicial Department of the state government.

Could we actually get a legalized and regulated THC market in Texas? Under Republicans? It looks that way, but don’t hold your breath. Dan Patrick already said, “over his dead body.”

They plan to ban abortion pills in the special session. And they already did their stupid “sex-segregated spaces,” so I don’t know what else they think there’s left to do in that front.

Also, they say we’re getting all of our “Operation Lone Star” money back under the “Big Bullshit Bill.” How much do you want to bet that Republicans are going to try to use that money to buy down the property tax rate temporarily, and then they’ll proclaim it’s “the biggest tax break in Texas history.” But if you own property in Texas, you know that your property taxes will still go up next year anyway.

None of this is an accident.

Not the flooding. Not the failure to warn. Not the redistricting. Not the bills to protect billionaires while the rest of us drown, literally and politically. What we’re watching in real time is a government more interested in power than protection, more focused on political maps than flood maps, and more concerned with performative cruelty than public safety.

They’ll call it leadership. They’ll call it emergency governance. But Texans know the difference between real help and a press conference. We know when we’re being used. And we’ve had enough of being told not to point fingers when the whole damn state is underwater, figuratively, and in too many places, literally.

So no, it’s not too political to ask who’s responsible. It’s the only way to survive the next storm. And the next election.

• July 25: First day of special session

• August 23: Last day of special session

• November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election

• Who Will Be On The 2026 State Ballot?

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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