Texas redistricting plan could bring back Speaker Pelosi

Kudos to Cameron Joseph for his story in The Hill Wednesday about the
gigantic victory for House Democrats in the new redistricting plan just
approved in court. This is huge. This is powerful. This is potentially
transforming.

Under the new plan, Texas Democrats, who now control 9 House seats,
could win 13 House seats in the next Congress. If the Democrats gain 4
new seats in the House from Texas alone, they have a big head start on
regaining control of the House of Representatives and returning the
Speaker’s gavel to Nancy Pelosi.

{mosads}Most analysts, understandably pre-occupied with the presidential campaign and the supercommittee, have missed the enormous importance of events in Texas. My Texas Democratic friends are ecstatic.

Let’s be clear about what happened. Under the leadership of Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Republicans tried to cheat Hispanics out of new seats created by the demographic surge of Hispanics in Texas. It did not work. Hispanic groups were outraged and mobilized. The Democrats fought back. The law sided with the Democrats.

The foiled Texas ripoff is part of a national pattern of outright attempts at election manipulation and voter suppression by the GOP. Democrats have now begun to fight back.

The Texas redistricting case gives Democrats a great chance to gain 4 new seats in the House, which markedly increases the odds that Democrats regain control of the House.

This, folks, is huge.