'Stay out of it': Ex-top Republican lawmaker rips Trump's bid to 'rig' midterms

Source: Raw Story

July 25, 2025 9:36PM ET


One former high-ranking Texas Republican state legislator is now coming out forcefully against President Donald Trump's latest push to drastically redraw congressional districts in the Lone Star State.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott initially convened a special session of the legislature in order to address the deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas. However, after Trump suggested that Texas Republicans use the special session as a means to conduct a mid-decade redistricting process in order to make the state's congressional map even more favorable to the GOP, Abbott assented.

In a Friday op-ed for the New York Times, former state representative Burt Solomons — who served in the Texas House of Representatives between 1995 and 2013 and chaired the redistricting committee — said he was "deeply alarmed" by his party's special session's redistricting effort. Solomons described the plan as "an apparent bid to rig the 2026 midterm elections long before the votes are cast."

"What Mr. Trump wants my former colleagues to do — redistricting now, years ahead of the usual once-per-decade time frame — would erode the public’s already flagging trust in government," he wrote. "The Legislature should stand up against it. The president should stay out of it."

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/stay-out-of-it/