James Talarico Is on the Run

Somewhere in Illinois, shuttling between undisclosed locations, Texas state representative James Talarico is on a work-cation from hell.

He’s trying to keep up with constituent services while running out the clock on a special session in the Texas legislature. He’s also running out of clean clothes, and can’t say much about his whereabouts or the security threats against him and more than 50 of his colleagues.

Technically, he’s on the lam—a 19th century slang term for leaving a location quickly, and a favorite among old-school editors—as he and his party look to thwart Texas Republicans from enacting an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting plan. If successful, Texas Republicans would be able to take as many as five seats away from the Democrats in Congress by gerrymandering their districts well before the 2030 Census. This mid-decade gerrymandering could be met by an equal reaction from California, Illinois and New York, all large blue states with several Republican-held seats.

In response, and in order to block the new map from being implemented, Democratic representatives from Texas fled the state. Their goal is to break quorum in the legislature to prevent a vote on the new map before the end of the special session on August 19. The situation has continued to escalate: Texas governor Greg Abbott threatened the lawmakers with $500 daily fines, Republicans in the legislature put out civil arrest warrants, and President Donald Trump said the FBI “may have to” get involved in the search.

Talarico, who lives alone, left his home last week for a charter flight out of Austin. With only a small bag of clothes, Talarico says he didn’t even know where he was heading until he got on the plane.

We spoke with Talarico about where things go from here, how bad it could get, and whether Republicans might be overplaying their hand with this unprecedented maneuver.

This interview has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

WIRED: What was happening when you knew you might have to actually leave the state? What was going through your mind?

James Talarico: When the first reporting came out that they may try this mid-decade redistricting power grab, I knew it was going to be a possibility, but I didn’t know that we had the numbers and were ready to go until about 24 hours ahead of time.

And that’s how much time I had to get my bags packed and arrangements made and all that. I didn’t even know where we were going, but I was told the meetup location, which was a union hall in Austin, not too far from the capitol. And then from there we went to the airport, and it wasn’t until I got on the plane that I figured that we were going to Illinois.

Could you walk me through what your average day has been looking like since you and your fellow Democrats left the state?

Well, the days have been nonstop. Early mornings, late evenings—doing a lot of interviews because we’re trying to shine a national spotlight on this redistricting power grab in Texas and why it is critical, not just for Democrats, but independents and Republicans too, in order to protect their voices in the democratic process across this country.