|
Greg Abbott Mocks NYC with Prayer Post
as Texas Dems Needle Him on Prop 50 Win
Capitol Inside
November 5, 2025
As Governor Greg Abbott scrambled to keep the focus on the opposite coast with the use of prayer to mock New Yorkers, Texas Democrats claimed a historic victory on Wednesday in an ongoing battle over congressional redistricting after California voters approved a map that rendered an effort here this year to be a monumental waste.
"Greg Abbott lost. Donald Trump lost. And the Texas House Democrats who broke quorum this summer to fight their power grab won an extraordinary and unlikely victory,"
the Texas House Democratic Caucus declared in a statement this morning.
Abbott remained mum today on the
success of the California Democrats' redistricting plan in Proposition 50, which passed late last night with support from nearly two-thirds of the voters in the Golden State. The Texas governor sought to use the elections in New York City to distract attention from the West Coast vote that effectively cancelled out the gains that Republicans thought they'd made in the Lone Star State when they designed a U.S. House map to give the GOP five more seats.
Abbott vowed on Tuesday to impose tariffs of 100 percent on people who move from New York City to Texas in the wake of this week's election that featured Democrat Zohran Mamdani's victory in the mayor's race over the candidate who Trump supported for the post. The governor has been weighing the possibility of increasing drivers license fees for NYC transplants that move here starting today - a move that would appear to be blatantly unconstitutional on its surface.
But Abbott declined to bring up the scheme in a post on X last night when he claimed to be praying for the same New York City residents he's threatening to punish if they relocate here. "Join me for a moment of silence for NYC," Abbott said. "Thoughts & prayers."
The governor included an emoji in the social media taunt that showed two hands clasped together in prayer. But Abbott offered no opinion or commentary on the outcome of the Prop 50 fight in California where Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom's scored a personal victory that could put him track for the nomination in the race for the White House in 2028.
Newsom and the Democrats in California owe the Democratic members of the Texas House a massive debt of gratitude for a summer walkout on the Trump-ordered map redesign in Texas that bought time for the nation's largest state to counter with Proposition 50. The new California map was drawn to flip five U.S. House seats from red to blue at the polls in 2026. That's the same number that Texas Republicans hope to pick up on map they crafted here and needed two special sessions to pass.
Houston State Rep. Gene Wu
- the Democratic Caucus chairman who Abbott tried and failed to have thrown out of the Legislature for the key role he had in quorum-breaking disappearing act - sought to run the Texas governor's nose in the California vote.
"Greg Abbott wanted to be Donald Trump's enforcer," Wu said in a post on X. "Instead, he became the cautionary tale of what happens when you betray your state to please D.C. politicians," Wu said. "The governor delayed relief for victims of the July 4 flood in Kerr County, weaponized law enforcement against us, filed frivolous lawsuits to intimidate us, and still lost.
"Last night, California proved that when you stand up to corrupt politicians, you don't stand alone; we stood with and inspired millions of Americans to join the fight,"
Wu added.
While the California election effectively made the Texas effort a waste of time, resources and political capital to a large extent, the GOP still appears to have the edge in the gerrymandering competition with Republicans expected to pick up seats in Missouri, North Carolina and Indiana as products of mid-decade remap blitzes.
But the competition between the two largest states appears destined to be a wash at best for Abbott and the Republicans in Texas - or worse - if the GOP fails to pick up all five targeted seats in Congress a year from now.
more to come ...
| 
