Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) isn't convinced the Republican-backed plan to draw Democrats out of districts in her state will ultimately accomplish its goal — and furthermore, she added, Trump's plan to strongarm Republicans in other states, like Indiana, into passing similar plans may hit a brick wall.
She laid out her thoughts on the matter on Tuesday night's edition of CNN's "The Source" with fill-in anchor Brianna Keilar.
"I wonder if that attention [from Texas Democrats' walkout] is going to matter when Republicans clearly have the advantage when it comes to controlling states and having single-party control?" said Keilar. "There's 15 states the Republicans have that, two Democrats for, is that really enough that it brought national attention when that broad map could hand power to President Trump in the next Congress?"
"Well, here's the deal," said Crockett. "He was going to seek power and seek to take it no matter what. We saw how he attempted to handle things the last time he lost an election. He called down to the governor. This is a guy who does not care about the rule of law whatsoever. So the fact that we're actually fighting back, I think that does matter. When you look at the approval ratings of the Democratic Party, part of that isn't because of our policies. It's because of a lack of fight. So, at a very minimum, we are going to have to overperform. We have been overperforming every since he's been in office."
"I have a feeling that they're still not going to get five seats out of Texas," she continued. "I know that that is their plan, but the reality is that when you look at somebody like a Henry Cuellar, Henry Cuellar won his seat, while Donald Trump won that seat by 7 points. So I know that there are Democrats that know how to overperform even when they draw these maps, these ways, they always thought that they were going to have Vicente Gonzalez's seat, as well as Henry Cuellar. And they have beat back the odds. I don't think that they won't necessarily beat back the odds this time."
"I can tell you that we are finally getting some investments into Texas because of how they are treating us, especially in a state that is a majority-minority state, a state in which we have seen how he has handled immigrants," Crockett said. "And so I think it is going to be interesting."
"I think the backlash is going to be even bigger because he decided to do this," she added. "And at the end of the day, you don't have to worry about California. You can stop this right now if you just say, 'Hey, we will stop in Texas because California doesn't go into play unless Texas does. It is a trigger. But as it relates to Indiana, he's probably not going to get that one. The state law is probably not going to be very helpful for him in Indiana."
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