Mike Lawler is enjoying his recess from Congress, going to clam bakes to raise money for the Congressional campaign he didn’t want, and lecturing the person in the job he would prefer, the governorship of NY, about the rule of law.
Let’s examine the facts on redistricting. Then we’ll follow the Lawler, at Mike’s request.
Much like his infamous call to Georgia’s Secretary of State in 2021 to “find 11,780 votes,” Donald Trump has now asked Texas to redraw its electoral map to give the GOP 5 more seats in the House in 2026. “A simple redrawing,” says the man who doesn’t draw. A man who doesn’t need to worry about the legality of anything he says since he’s been granted immunity by his Supremes.
Texas dutifully released its redistricting plan on Wednesday. Redistricting used to be a once-per-decade affair, done in conjunction with new census data. As Texas did in 2021. But now they want to do it again, mid-decade, because the President asked, and because it may be critical to maintaining Republican control of the House.
Breaking the norms, for sure. Unethical? Probably. Illegal? Probably not in Texas, surprise, surprise. Not surprisingly, Democrats are up in arms. Kathy Hochul suggests she won’t “sit by” while this happens, and Mike Lawler thumbs his nose at her, reminding her that she can’t legally redistrict mid-decade in NY. And he’s probably right about the law in NY, which is stricter than Texas.
This is particularly rich coming from Mike Lawler, who got elected in 2022 after a court-appointed expert drew a temporary electoral map for NY’s elections that year in the wake of litigation, reshaping NY-17. The man who benefitted from the rule of law in NY now taunts us as he props up lawless Trump and his Texas cowboys.
Is it just coincidence that 9 of the 10 most gerrymandered states in the country lean Republican? That Princeton’s Gerrymandering Project gave NY a partisan fairness grade of “A” and Texas an “F”? In 2024, Texas Republican candidates for the U.S. House got 58% of the statewide vote, but claimed 66% of the seats because of the electoral map. A map that is being redrawn at Trump’s direction to make the results even more skewed in 2026.
It is the “radical far-Left” Democrats (as labeled by Lawler) who tried to reform this insane system in 2021 when the House passed the For the People Act, a landmark ethics and election reform bill that would have outlawed partisan gerrymandering. But the Republicans shut it down in the Senate by filibuster.
They don’t even pretend any more. The Republicans have simply declared that they will defy norms, break the rules and subvert the law to solidify power. Engineering electoral maps and laws to defeat the will of the people, comfortable that the Supreme Court won’t do a thing, stuffing Federal appellate courts with people like Emil Bove, who “is openly hostile to the rule of law.”
Is it any wonder that some Democrats are starting to consider any and all means to counter this power grab? As the director of the Lone Star Project in Texas bemoaned, “The high road’s not available to us anymore. The high road is just a cliff you’re walking off.”
Has Mike Lawler ever told Donald Trump to “follow the law?” The man who said “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” The man who has created total chaos in the world economy this day, and likely for the duration of his Presidency and beyond, with his Monty Hall style tariff game show. All because Mike Lawler voted to give up tariff power that the Constitution grants to Congress.
Mike Lawler has no business lecturing anybody about following the law, as chief defender of the most lawless and unethical President ever to hold office. We need to follow the Lawler, observe carefully, vote accordingly.
Photo credit: Carlos Barria / Reuters
Rule of Lawler 