{"id":6431,"date":"2025-10-16T09:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/6431\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:37:20","slug":"if-we-fall-short-thats-the-end-of-the-ball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/6431\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf we fall short, that\u2019s the end of the ball game.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for the Slatest<\/a> to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.<\/p>\n

For months, political fighting in Texas consumed the nation\u2019s attention, as Republicans, at Donald Trump\u2019s insistence, redrew their state\u2019s electoral map in a bid to hold more seats for the GOP. It was part of a larger struggle over control of Congress in next year\u2019s midterm elections, but now the conflict has broadened: to California, where Gavin Newsom\u2019s Democrats are trying to squeeze more Democratic seats out of their map; to Indiana, where Republicans are hoping to repeat what they did in Texas on a smaller scale; and to other states across the country.<\/p>\n

But back in Texas, this clash has had significant consequences, including for high-profile Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke, the former member of the U.S. House and former candidate for the U.S. Senate and the White House.<\/p>\n

For months, O\u2019Rourke and his group Powered by People have been under attack from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Paxton is most generously described as a character. Less generously, but accurately, he can be described as one of just a few Texas statewide officials in history who have been both impeached by their own party and indicted on felony charges while in office. Nevertheless, he is also a primary candidate for the U.S. Senate.)<\/p>\n

The case nominally centers on Powered by People\u2019s actions during the redistricting battle, when it made no-strings-attached financial contributions to state lawmakers as they fled Texas in a bid to bring more national attention to the issue. Paxton accused O\u2019Rourke\u2019s group of paying \u201cBeto bribes,\u201d and for weeks, across social media and in press releases, the state attorney general mustered all of his name-calling bravado, claiming that he would put Beto behind bars and shut down his \u201cradical left-wing\u201d organization. But this was ultimately about trying to leverage the power of the state to impose consequences on one\u2019s political opponents for the \u201ccrime\u201d of pushing back against your agenda.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for O\u2019Rourke and for the Constitution, Paxton\u2019s suit has flopped. In September, an all-Republican-appointed Texas court ruled unanimously against the Republican, deeming the lawsuit against O\u2019Rourke\u2019s nonprofit a violation of free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-hundred forty-nine years into this experiment,\u201d O\u2019Rourke told Slate, \u201cthis idea that we are a government of, by, and for the people, well, that still stands. And it stands whether the judges are Republicans or Democrats or in Texas or somewhere else. So that really felt good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now O\u2019Rourke is back in the fray in Texas, amid a struggle that may determine control of Congress for years to come: The state is expected to gain four more House seats as a result of the 2030 census, while California\u2019s population is expected to drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a time and place for rallies,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said, \u201cbut it\u2019s really powerful when you bring every voice into the conversation, including\u2014and importantly\u2014voices that may disagree with you or see things from a different perspective. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing across Texas for a long time, and what I\u2019m increasingly doing across the country.\u201d He added, \u201cWe\u2019re really going everywhere and trying to bring everybody in.\u201d<\/p>\n

More immediately, however, he is focused on next year\u2019s midterms, warning that losing them could be \u201cthe end of the ball game\u201d for our democracy.<\/p>\n

Slate caught up with O\u2019Rourke after the ruling to discuss why his recent legal win matters in the face of ever more powerful institutions\u2019 willingness to bend the knee to Trump, why Texas has yet to turn purple, and what can be done to change that. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n

Slate: How do you feel now that Texas\u2019 15th Court of Appeals voted against Ken Paxton and his plans to shut down Powered by People?<\/p>\n

Beto O\u2019Rourke: I feel good, but honestly, I was somewhat surprised. Every one of those justices was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott. This was a court set up by the Legislature specifically to hear these kinds of cases that involve the state of Texas. So Paxton had home-court advantage. And we had really struggled in the Fort Worth court, in Tarrant County. We had a temporary restraining order that froze our organization\u2019s assets. They tried to freeze my personal assets, and they significantly restricted our ability to raise money. Paxton was promising that he was going to put me behind bars, and he filed criminal contempt charges to do just that. He went after our license to do business in the state, and we\u2019re the largest voter-registration program in Texas. It was not looking good. But we have an extraordinary legal team, and they filed a mandamus with the 15th, this newly set-up court, and they came back, and the opinion, if you haven\u2019t read it yet, is worth scanning. It\u2019s just scathing.<\/p>\n

Can you give me the gist?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 23-page opinion in its indictment of Paxton. Here\u2019s a quote: \u201cPowered by People and Beto O\u2019Rourke assert that the trial court\u2019s modified restraining order violates their rights to free speech under the Texas Constitution and United States Constitution and must be vacated for that reason. We agree.\u201d But we\u2019re not out of the woods yet because they haven\u2019t rendered a final decision. And even if that decision is in our favor, it can be appealed to the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court. So we will see. But, yes, that was a really good sign.<\/p>\n

Had you known all the threats and legal fees you would face, would you still have helped the Democratic legislators in their quorum break?<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf we fall short in 2026, that\u2019s the end of the ball\u00a0game.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Yes\u2014they had the courage of their convictions, and they did this not for partisan advantage but, kind of going back to what the 15th Court of Appeals did, they did this to uphold the idea of self-government and to try to stop a blatant power grab. I mean, Trump is very clear about this, right? There was never a pretense that the existing districts were unconstitutional; they were drawn by the Republican majority in 2021 for their own benefit. Trump just said, \u201cI won big in Texas in 2024. I deserve five more seats.\u201d These Democratic legislators tried to stop that. But you can\u2019t do that on your own, and you need everyone in the fight. And so our organization was able to raise and donate more than $1 million to support groups such as the House Democratic Caucus, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. This sort of political expression is our right as free people in a free country, confirmed by that appeals court decision.<\/p>\n

Paxton has embraced Trump-style bullying and name-calling in his attacks against you. Among other things, he has called you a fraudster and a failed political has-been, but you\u2019re not responding in kind. Can politicians still show character and play fair, or is good sportsmanship these days a one-way ticket to political failure?<\/p>\n

So we really want to be known by the work that we do. There are some people who are all about bluff and bluster, and I guess that\u2019s fine and works well on Twitter, but there are others who are keeping their eyes on the prize. And for us, that means winning political power with a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives in 2026. Because I think if we fall short of that, that\u2019s the end of the ball game. The consolidation of authoritarian power in the hands of the president will be unstoppable. You can kiss this Constitution goodbye\u2014there\u2019s nothing that I believe more firmly than that.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if we are able to win a majority in the House, then there will be a check on the president\u2019s lawlessness and accountability for his crimes, and there will remain the possibility of free and fair elections in 2028.<\/p>\n

And so the president gets this, right?\u00a0You\u2019ve never had an American president turn to the governor of a state and say, literally, \u201cFind me five congressional seats.\u201d And the reason he\u2019s taken this incredibly unprecedented step is that he understands those very same stakes. He recognizes that he is unpopular in America right now, that the polling for his individual initiatives, like the One Big Beautiful Bill or his warrantless plainclothes masked immigration and U.S. citizen roundups, is not good. Folks don\u2019t like this stuff, and he\u2019s not going to hold that majority on this current trajectory. Therefore, in Texas, in Indiana, in Florida, and in so many other states, he\u2019s turning to their governors to try to grab more power to insulate him from the consequences of his actions and the accountability of these voters. I\u2019m focused on that.<\/p>\n

Ken Paxton has a different job. He\u2019s focused on winning the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, and I get that. And so, in that world, all his bluff and bluster and name-calling scores points, perhaps in his primary contest against Sen. John Cornyn. But I don\u2019t have to worry about that stuff. I\u2019m just focused on the really big prize, which is making sure that we save this country in 2026. And to do that, you\u2019ve got to put in the work now, in 2025.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re looking at $400,000 in legal fees. Does it hurt to waste so much money to fend off Paxton rather than doing the voter-outreach work?<\/p>\n

Yes, this is costing us a lot of money. But the Texas Democrats, too, did this at great personal cost.\u00a0But here\u2019s the thing, and this is why it\u2019s even more important that we do this regardless of cost: The most powerful in this country\u2014the big law firms or the Ivy Leagues or Paramount, CBS, or Disney\/ABC, who just canceled Jimmy Kimmel\u2014every entity that actually has the resources and capacity to fight back against authoritarianism is instead bending the knee. They\u2019re practicing this anticipatory obedience. There was no executive action ordering Disney\/ABC to cancel Kimmel, but they knew that Trump wanted them to do it, and so they did it for his pleasure and for their own profit.<\/p>\n

Nexstar, one of the big local TV providers, which has a significant part of the market already, is planning a merger, and that merger needs to be approved by Trump\u2019s FCC chairman. And they understood that canceling Kimmel was going to make it more likely that they could grow their business. So, as all of these powerful people and institutions\u2014the tech moguls, the traditional centers of power\u2014as they bend the knee, it\u2019s ever more important that everyone else, regardless of how powerful or powerless you think you are, stand and fight.<\/p>\n

On a more local scale, 10 years ago, there was a lot of talk about the inevitability of Texas\u2019 turning purple. What went wrong?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good question, and I understand it because of all the hope that Texas presents, and I think that it also comes out of the fact that in 2018, not only did I get so close to Ted Cruz, but in that year we picked up 12 state House seats. That\u2019s huge. We picked up two really-close-to-impossible congressional seats, including the one that Colin Allred won against Pete Sessions. That was really huge. I think 19 Black women were elected to judicial positions in Harris County. We won appeals court races. I mean, we ran the tables in Texas.<\/p>\n

And so the question is: Well, then, why didn\u2019t you just keep running the tables year after year after year? And here\u2019s the thing. Republicans who had every major lever of power\u2014the state House, Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, on down the line\u2014saw how transformational 2018 was and recognized that their purchase on power was very precarious. And so they immediately began changing the election laws in the state to make it harder for a Democrat to win.<\/p>\n

They closed polling locations. In just the past 10 years, I think, more than 750 polling locations have closed in Texas. And if anything, Texas should be adding polling locations. It\u2019s one of the fastest-growing states in the union, but it\u2019s closing more polling stations than any other state by a Texas mile. And almost every single one of those polling place closures has occurred in a fast-growing Black or brown neighborhood.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s got to be more than just polling locations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s voting rights overall. In 2022, when I ran for governor, during the primary\u2014this is staggering\u201413 percent of mail ballots were rejected by the state. In Texas, you have to qualify to vote by mail. So you have to have a disability, be over the age of 65, or be a service member deployed overseas. College students who go to school somewhere other than the county where they\u2019re registered have to vote by mail.\u00a0The previous high-water mark for ballot vote-by-mail rejection in Texas was 1 percent. Thirteen percent is on par with a third-world pretend-democracy dictatorship. It\u2019s not what we expect from the United States of America.<\/p>\n

You believe that the state\u2019s low voter turnout is because it\u2019s hard to vote in Texas?<\/p>\n

Yes. In 2018, when I ran for Senate, we had one of the highest levels of voter turnout in Texas history, bar none. Then, in 2022, when I run for governor, you have 9 million registered Texans who don\u2019t even cast a ballot, even though you have the most obscene abortion ban in America, even though you have 19 kids and two teachers slaughtered in Uvalde and you just had a failure of the electricity grid that killed 700 people. So I know that there are some who want to pin this on Democrats or messaging or tactics or personalities. But no, this is what happens when you don\u2019t have voting rights. You get what you are seeing right now in the state of Texas. And it culminates in this mid-decade gerrymander of five congressional districts that just took place last month.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
\n Trump\u2019s Plan for a Secret Police Force Loyal to Him Alone Isn\u2019t Playing Well in Court
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you and other Democrats in Texas still turn the state purple? How?<\/p>\n

Yes, we can. Here\u2019s something that should give people some hope and some faith, and I know we all, myself included, need it right now: The reason why Trump is trying to steal these seats in Texas, the reason why Ken Paxton is threatening to put me in jail, the reason why Greg Abbott is trying to remove all these Democratic legislators from office is that they are panicked. In 2021 Texas Democrats left the state, breaking quorum, and Powered by People raised $600,000 to support them in that fight. There were no suits filed; there was no effort to remove people from office. There was none of this stuff.<\/p>\n

The reason they\u2019re doing it all right now is because everything that I just shared with you is on the line, and the stakes and the consequences for each side could not be greater. In other words, they wouldn\u2019t be doing this if they weren\u2019t panicked. And that should give us some hope. And why are they afraid? Because we know that, traditionally, the party of the president in power suffers huge electoral losses in a normal midterm. But on top of that, this is no ordinary midterm. This is a midterm in what is essentially the second term for Trump with polling numbers that are as bad as, and in some cases worse than, they were on the eve of the blowout that he suffered in 2018. Again, remember, I lost just by a little more than 2.5 percent to Ted Cruz. And, just as importantly, underneath me on the ballot, you had Democrat after Democrat win what were thought to be impossible races. So that was the first midterm of Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court Might Net Republicans 19 Congressional Seats in One Fell Swoop
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<\/p>\n

One of the Worst Cases of This Supreme Court Term Has Been Years in the Making
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\n This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n

Donald Trump May Have Already Sabotaged His Own DOJ Revenge Tour
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\n This Content is Available for Slate Plus members only<\/p>\n

He Fought Trump\u2019s Texas Power Grab. Now He\u2019s Defending Himself in Court.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re now in the second midterm of Trump\u2019s administration, and whatever you thought was chaotic or unconstitutional or just downright evil before, like separating kids from their parents or putting them in cages or describing immigrants as \u201canimals\u201d or all the other stuff he did, it is 10 times worse in America right now. And on top of all that, inflation is continuing to spike.<\/p>\n

I just read in the Wall Street Journal that you have record levels of joblessness, especially among young people, among African Americans. Homeownership is as out of reach as it has ever been for people who are in their 20s and 30s and, increasingly, in their 40s and 50s. In other words, this country is absolutely on the wrong track, and it will be looking for change. So, under those conditions, and then given some of the talent that we see out there right now, people who\u2019ve put their name in for Senate, folks who are running for Congress across the state, I feel really good about our chances. Not that we are certain to win, not that this is a slam dunk\u2014it\u2019s just that we have an opportunity to do this. And the only way that we\u2019re going to get there is if everyone, first, believes that and, second, does the work to ensure that what we believe comes to pass. And that\u2019s of course what I\u2019m focused on here in Texas.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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