In the escalating redistricting battle roiling Texas politics, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina offered a defiant perspective on the Democratic backlash.
Speaking during an August 6 appearance on Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla, Scott dismissed the concerns raised by Democrats—who fled Texas to deny quorum and stall a vote on new congressional maps intended to yield five additional GOP seats. “They’re losing their minds because they’re losing their voters,” Scott asserted, highlighting electoral shifts among minority demographics. He pointed out that nearly half of Hispanic men, more than 30% of African American men, and over half of Native Americans voted for Donald Trump, arguing that the proposed redistricting reflects these ongoing trends rather than deliberate racial targeting. “What they’re really ticked off about is that we’ve torn the page from their book and we’re now applying it to reality,” he said, framing the GOP’s actions as a lawful reapplication of longstanding Democratic strategies.
Scott’s remarks come amid an intensely polarized response to the redistricting thrust in Texas, which critics argue undercuts democratic fairness. In response, Democratic lawmakers and governors in several states—including California and New York—are exploring or actively advancing retaliatory redistricting measures, signaling a tit-for-tat escalation across the political map.
This emerging “arms race” over partisan map drawing has placed redistricting at the forefront of national political debate ahead of the 2026 midterms, prompting widespread scrutiny of democratic norms and representation at the state and federal levels.
