Greg Casar does not shy away from using the term “fascist” to describe the politicians currently ascendant in Washington, D.C.
“I ran for Congress three years ago to fight the fascists,” Casar told the Chronicle at the tail end of a press conference on Monday announcing his intention to run in Congressional District 37, currently represented by Rep. Lloyd Doggett. “I wanted to make that fight alongside Lloyd. Now, with the Republicans’ gerrymandered maps – if they’re upheld by the courts – we’ll fight the fascists with these folks right here.”
“These folks right here” were three dozen Austin political leaders who stood behind Casar at the Downtown AFL-CIO headquarters on Monday as he laid out his plans. They included Mayor Kirk Watson and eight of the 10 sitting City Council members; state Reps. Gina Hinojosa, Donna Howard, and most of Central Texas’ delegation to the state House and Senate; eight of the nine Austin ISD trustees; County Judge Andy Brown and two county commissioners; and other current and former officeholders, including Jim Hightower and Glen Maxey.
Doggett was not present, but he was praised repeatedly from the podium after the senior congressman announced last Thursday that, if the gerrymandered maps survive a legal challenge, he will not seek reelection to Congress.
The mid-decade redistricting, demanded by Donald Trump in July to provide five safe Republican seats in the U.S. House in the 2026 elections, passed the Texas Legislature over the weekend. It reduces Austin’s two congressional districts – CDs 35 and 37 – into one. CD 35, which Casar has represented since 2023, has been removed from Austin entirely. The new CD 35 encompasses east San Antonio and nearby rural districts and would be difficult for a Democrat to win. The new CD 37, meanwhile, contains Casar’s home, his former City Council district, and a third of his constituents. It is a safe Democratic seat.
However, the new CD 37 also contains two-thirds of Lloyd Doggett’s constituents, people he’s represented for decades. After the Republican maps dropped in early August, Doggett tried to persuade Casar not to run in CD 37 but to take on the challenge of winning CD 35. As part of the persuasion, Doggett told local politicos he would spend his entire $6.2 million campaign fund to fight off a primary challenge from Casar.
“If Trump’s extreme gerrymandering prevails, I wish Congressman Casar the best.” – Rep. Lloyd Doggett
Casar wasn’t persuaded, and Doggett’s promise to spend big wasn’t well met. Many pointed out that the congressman, a Democratic Party stalwart, well-liked at home and in D.C., would be 80 years old by the time of the 2026 election, whereas Casar is 36 and continuing to rise in the party, having already been elected chair of the House’s Congressional Progressive Caucus. With Doggett’s team hearing that his supporters were disturbed by the prospect of an expensive intraparty fight, he announced last Thursday that he would cede CD 37 to Casar. “If Trump’s extreme gerrymandering prevails, I wish Congressman Casar the best,” he said in the statement announcing he was standing down. At the Monday press conference, Casar thanked Doggett. Rick Levy, the president of the Texas AFL-CIO, praised the decision. “It was statesmanship,” Levy said to sustained applause.
Doggett’s announcement came less than 24 hours after Republicans pushed their gerrymandered maps through the Texas House of Representatives. With Democrats having just returned from their quorum break, the debate before the vote was tense. Republican Rep. Todd Hunter, the putative author of the redistricting bill, did not argue that the new maps are fair or just or proper, only that they are legal. “The law allows it,” Hunter said repeatedly, explaining that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently overturned decades of precedent, ruling that states may legally gerrymander districts for the sole purpose of improving a party’s political performance.
Hunter claimed that he wasn’t offended by Democrats’ criticism of the naked gerrymandering, but he complained over and over about their quorum break, which shut down business in the House for two weeks. Rep. Nicole Collier, who had been locked in the House chamber for 36 hours by the time of the vote for refusing Republicans’ demands that she accept a DPS escort, responded to Hunter’s complaints. “Are you aware that when there were slavery times, Blacks fled?” asked Collier, who is African American. “During the Nazi times, Jewish people fled. They fled their oppressor.”
Throughout the debate, Democrats challenged the redistricting as racist and corrupt. Rep. Vincent Perez said the new maps give Hispanic Texans one-third, and Black Texans one-fifth, of the political value of a white Texan. “This is about racism!” Rep. Ann Johnson said vehemently, as she stared down an unnamed Republican who had shaken their head. “You can’t admit that the root of all of this is about racism and power – a power grab, a pure power grab!”
With the Senate scheduled to take up the redistricting bill on Saturday, Houston Sen. Carol Alvarado appeared in sneakers, planning to filibuster the bill as long as she could. But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shut down the filibuster before it could get started, agreeing with a procedural motion that Alvarado had violated rules by sending out fundraising appeals mentioning the filibuster. Spectators in the Senate gallery shouted “fascist!” and “shame!” as the redistricting plan was approved on a party-line vote, 18 to 11.
Austin Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, who helped Alvarado prepare for the filibuster, described Patrick’s decision as unprecedented and hypocritical after the vote. “Republicans will turn around and raise millions off stealing Texans’ votes,” Eckhardt said. “This is not democracy.”
This article appears in August 29 • 2025.
