Former Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer speaks about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)

Last week, Texas state Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer (D-San Antonio) spoke with WCPT’s Richard Chew about his state GOP’s redistricting scheme and how he and his Democratic colleagues are urging blue-state governors to fight back.

Speaking on “Chew’s Views” on Aug. 5 as Republicans try to arrest him and force his appearance in the Texas House of Representatives to complete the state’s gerrymandering plan, Martinez-Fischer applauded pledges from blue-state governors like Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker, California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Kathy Hochul to respond with gerrymandering of their own.

“This democracy is being stolen right before our eyes,” Martinez-Fischer said. “We need to wake up and rise up, and we need other governors, from California to New York, to say, ‘OK, Trump, you’re gonna race us to the bottom? OK, we will meet you halfway. For every Republican seat you want to create in Texas, we will offset that in one of our states.’ And we are proud to know that we are just a little spark in that national conversation that’s getting California to act and getting New York to act.”

Texas Republican leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) are trying to instill a new congressional map just four years after the last one was passed in order to give themselves five more projected U.S. House seats. Seeing it as splitting up communities of color in a ploy to give Trump a Republican-controlled Congress after the midterm elections, over 50 Democratic lawmakers have fled the state to deny quorum and therefore passage of a new map.

Martinez-Fischer pressed on other Democrats to act now instead of when the next presidential election happens.

“Don’t come see me on Super Tuesday if you aren’t here with me, standing and fighting for democracy right now,” Martinez-Fischer said. “This is a defining moment. I’m going to keep a list in my back pocket; when you roll through San Antonio and you want to get some time, I’m going to pull that list out and be like, ‘OK, well, where were you? Where were you when the rest of us were camping out and fighting?'”

Below is the full transcript of the interview. (Please note: The transcript has been edited for clarity.)

Richard Chew: Texas House representatives — there’s some ballers. They’re doing it. They’re doing what they got to do right now to make a statement. And we have been blessed this morning to have Rep. Trey Fischer-Martinez (sic) of District 116 on the phone with us this morning.

Representative, welcome to “Chew’s Views” here in Chicago.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Hey. Thank you, Richard. Great to be with you.

Richard Chew: Thank you so much for being with us. But more importantly, thank you for your voice these last few days. Thank you for the courage. I just had on one of our colleagues talking about stepping out of your comfort zone. And you guys stepped way out of your comfort zone — (laughs) — by coming to Illinois. But to do it for all the right reasons, to make a statement about protecting the voting rights of people who are about to have those voting rights removed by this craven group of Republicans, not only in your state but in this federal regime. So talk a little bit about that. I’ll just shut up and let you have the mic.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Well, Richard, first, it’s good to be here. There’s nothing like being in a place where you feel like you’re at home. So all the people here in the 312 have been just very supportive. We’re grateful that they are locked in with us, like they know the moment. And Texas Democrats, we are trying to meet that moment.

Let’s be really, really honest: We are the largest democracy in the world. We’re very proud of that, but to know that a Texas governor would bend a knee to Donald Trump because he’s worried about losing an election fair and square. And he would rather rig congressional districts than have to face checks and balances in the federal government and have real accountability, just kind of like the way our founders wanted it to be.

And so when Texas Republican leadership, lockstep, just said ‘yes, sir,’ folks thought that we were going to just sit by and put out the welcome mat for people who want to take away the voting rights of Latinos, African Americans and Asians, because that’s exactly what’s happening. When you draw these districts, you are going to disperse communities of interest. And what, we’re just going to sit back and be cool with that? Absolutely not.

And so we were lucky and fortunate to have a relationship here already in Illinois, and Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker and his team, along with — there are other governors as well, but Gov. Pritzker and his team provided an opportunity for us to come here and stay here as long as we need to, to make sure we are fighting back. But here’s the most important part, and I love this for “Chew’s Views” and all the viewers there — like, we’ve got to wake this country up.

I’m from Texas, right? So the old NASA mission Apollo 13, where you heard them go across the microphone and say, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ I’m telling people, America, we have a problem. This democracy is being stolen right before our eyes. We need to wake up and rise up, and we need other governors, from California to New York, to say, ‘OK, Trump, you’re gonna race us to the bottom? OK, we will meet you halfway. For every Republican seat you want to create in Texas, we will offset that in one of our states.’ And we are proud to know that we are just a little spark in that national conversation that’s getting California to act and getting New York to act. I know that Maryland’s thinking about it. And other states are starting to realize, ‘Oh, wait a minute, if these guys are going to cheat, well, two can play that game.’

Richard Chew: That’s right. And listen, I’m probably gushing with pride about this because what you guys are doing is you’re making it known — to your own words, we’ll meet you on that way to hell. (Laughs.) We’re gonna meet you. You’re going to fight to get through us. Gov. Pritzker has really stood for making it certain, making it clear that the people who are fighting, you have an ally. And he’s done this before. Right after the election, he made it clear to Donald Trump: If you’re going to come from my people, you’ve got to come through me. He made it clear on Roe v. Wade and women’s health care issues that this would be a place for people to come to so that they could get medical care and be taken care of. He made that perfectly clear, full-throated.

He made it clear again when it came to — I hate to use the word migrants, but folks that your governor, as you well know, decided to put human beings on planes and buses and send them to another state. So our governor has really stepped up. All of our officials really have. Sometimes they end up saying stupid stuff to each other and about each other, but at the end of the day, they’re all fighting to make this state a better place and the country a better place.

You representatives from Texas are doing the same thing. You’re putting the Republicans on notice. You’re not just a spark, Representative. You’re a blowtorch, because everybody’s talking about it, man. And we should be. See, that’s the thing. We should be talking about this. We should be fighting with everything we have. And this is why what you’re doing is so incredibly important.

Leads me to a question I want to ask you, and I know that we can get into the weeds very quickly on this. As the breakdowns are being looked at and the districts that are going to be impacted, help us with some of the numbers of people that will be impacted by this redistricting that they’re pushing for.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: We’re talking about five congressional districts that are currently represented mostly by minorities. So you have a big district in Houston represented by Al Green. You have a Latino district in south Texas by Vicente Gonzalez [Jr.]. Henry Cuellar goes from Laredo, which is the Texas-Mexico border, all the way to San Antonio. They want to decimate that district. They took another Latino district in San Antonio that runs from San Antonio to Austin, Texas, and they have now eliminated that district, sent it in another direction, and are now putting two members of Congress against each other. And aside from the people and the population impacts, these districts now are taking existing members of Congress and drawing them out of their districts. In other words, where they live is no longer in the district.

And so that’s how crazy and erratic and how desperate this maneuver is, all because Trump’s afraid to run an election fair and square. I don’t know, the guy thinks he’s so popular, he’s got all these wonderful ideas and we’re supposedly in the golden age right now with our economy. Nobody sees it. More people are worried about paying their grocery bill than anything else. But yet, he’d rather cheat and do this. And that’s what makes this crazy.

That’s why we said, hey, we just can’t let this happen. This is not a San Antonio problem. I’m from San Antonio. We’re going to lose — probably two members of Congress are going to be redirected. And that’s federal dollars. If you’re a veteran, you want to get health care, you want to go see your congressman? You won’t be able to now because we just lost one. You have a small business and you want help with an SBA loan? Heck, you need a letter of recommendation to go to college, to go to the Naval Academy. When you just lost your member of Congress, who knows our community, and they’re stretching folks out now

I was with a colleague from Dallas last night, Congresswoman Julie Johnson, that I served with in the House, and they are taking her from her suburban, very urban Dallas district and they’re moving her all the way to the Oklahoma line. And so, what do folks on the Oklahoma border have in common with people from the inner city of Dallas? And that’s what’s so crazy. But here’s the part that no one’s talking about. There are Republicans that are mad as hell too, because the only way you get more Republicans to put in these Democratic districts is you’re taking them from current Republican districts. So now you have Republican members of Congress saying, ‘Hold on here now. Wait a minute. You can’t take that neighborhood; those are my people. You can’t take that precinct; they turn out for me; those are my precinct captains over there.’ So they’re on edge, too.

But you know what the difference [is] between us and them? They don’t have the guts to speak up and to say this is wrong. And so you would be surprised of the number of Republican whisperers we have in our ears, like, ‘Hey, man. I can’t be I can’t be out there, man, but keep doing it.’

Richard Chew: Listen — (laughs) — I think about this all the time. Y’all got to mic up. You’ve got to have a second phone or something stuck in your suit jacket pocket that’s running. Anytime you go and you’re having a conversation with the Republican, of any stripe, you’ve got to hit the button, the record button, because so many times I’ve heard this — and I’m being silly, but I’m not. I’ve heard federal House members and Senate members and other folks in different states say, I talked to my folks on the other side of the aisle and they’re not down with this, and they say this to me in private.

And I’m thinking, where are the conversations? (Laughs.) Where’s the recording so we can cobble that together and go, we’ve got 15 state representatives and another 20 in the House of Representatives that have all said Donald Trump is an idiot but I can’t say it in public. Oh, well, we have the recording. So I’m playing, representative, but you get the point. I’m sure I’m not the first person to say that to you. (Laughs.)

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Man, you have to understand: I do not have enough memory on my phone because that happens more than a little bit. Look, that’s the no-guts caucus, and we recognize this. We’ve got to stand up. And this is not hard. People think, hey, we’re coming to this beautiful Chicago, 77-degree weather; we’re in a little bit of a respite or vacation. It’s a stressor. Many of us are married; we have families, we have jobs, we either sign the front of the check because we have businesses or we sign the back of the check because we work for somebody, and it’s hard to be away. But this is important. This moment is important.

And you said something earlier about Gov. Pritzker stepping up, and you’re absolutely right. I remember during the Christmas holidays he took out a full-page ad in San Antonio and told our governor, hey, man, don’t be putting migrants on a bus with these icy conditions; you’re going to kill somebody. Like, we know you’re trying to make a point and we’re going to take them in and take care of them, man, but don’t be stupid; you’re going to hurt somebody. And that settled with me.

And so, while he’s been very supportive here, I’ve got to give a shoutout to his team. His chief of staff, Anne Caprara; he’s got a woman named Teresa Reyes, who’s got some San Antonio connections and some roots. Those are the folks that are keeping the trains running on time and folks that we reach out to to get help. And so, for you all in Illinois, you’ve got to understand, coming from somebody who sees this through a red lens, from the state of Texas, y’all are very, very lucky to have a team in place like that that’s looking out for average, hard-working folks just like us.

Richard Chew: Yeah, he’s the real deal, and the lieutenant governor is doing a great job. Our comptroller, Susana Mendoza, our AG, Kwame Raoul, they’re all doing a great job that. And I say this often because I know so many people want to just throw back and say, “No, they’re doing ‘this,’ Richard.” They’re not perfect, y’all. They’re doing the thing that they can to make it as good as possible for as many people as possible.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: You hit my nerve. You hit my nerve, man. And that’s one of the lessons. If someone’s like, give me some homework, like, what do we need to do? Like, this is a moment of reflection. The one thing that we need to know and be very, very clear about is Republicans, they are not afraid to use their power. They get power, they use it. Oftentimes with Democrats, we have a debate between the perfect and the good and we have to get out of that mindset, right? For anybody in Illinois that thinks that things aren’t going the right way with this leadership, come stay with me for two weeks. Come follow me around for two weeks, and let’s see who got the better deal.

I mean, what the country is seeing today, Texas has been experiencing for 30 years. All of this hyper-MAGA, all this crazy talk, all this “let’s secede from the union,” that stuff’s been going on for 30 years in Texas. And let’s be careful about how we define our Democratic leaders, because they are, far above and beyond, better than the other team.

Richard Chew: So every now and again, you get help on something you didn’t know you were going to get help with. What you just said, representative, is what I want so many people across the country to hear that are Democrats. We need to stop this infighting and this nitpicking, and to use your phrase, we’ve got to stop doing that, because you are front and center to seeing what the other side is on a day-to-day basis. And when I hear folks that call themselves Democrats criticizing our Democratic leadership without a solution for that criticism, to me, that’s like white noise. Because, by comparison, and you just said it, you’re not speaking from some ‘I read this in a book.’ You live it as a Democratic leader in a Republican-dominated state and watched this for three decades.

This is why I try every day on my show, representative, to encourage our folks across the country, we have to fight together rather than against each other. And what Gov. Pritzker is doing right now in helping that process and what [California] Gov. [Gavin] Newsom could potentially be doing, and what [New York] Gov. [Kathy] Hochul and [Maryland Gov. Wes] Moore and [Pennsylvania Gov. Josh] Shapiro, all the rest, is a game changer, by just reaching out and saying, you know what? This time we aren’t going to play by the Republicans’ rules; we’re going to play by the rules that allow us to do what we’ve got to do. And I’m fingers crossed, toes crossed, that the others pick up on what not only Pritzker is doing but what others are talking about doing.

What’s your measure on that, in terms of what the other — I know you can’t dictate that, but what do you think strategically is the right next thing to do, when it comes to the other states?

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Look, the first thing is we’ve just got to make sure everybody’s on the same page and recognize the stakes here. And I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that. That’s phase one. Phase two is ‘OK, now we’ve identified the problem of this stealing of an election and cheating in congressional districts. Now, it’s what are other states going to do to respond?’

And we see that happening. Gov. Newsom said as early as yesterday that they think they can create five new democratic seats in California. I know Gov. Hochul is very optimistic. [New York Congressman] Hakeem Jeffries stands to take control of the Congress, and I’m sure that if Gov. Hochul can help him do that, she’s going to do it. Wes Moore in Maryland’s thinking about this. And we are also bringing more people into the fold that may not be able to do this because their state is different, but they have the microphone, so reaching out to other governors in other states: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan.

And so bottom line is, don’t come see me in 2028, Super Tuesday. Texas is the cat’s meow on Super Tuesday. Don’t come see me on Super Tuesday if you aren’t here with me, standing and fighting for democracy right now. This is a defining moment. I’m going to keep a list in my back pocket; when you roll through San Antonio and you want to get some time, I’m going to pull that list out and be like, ‘OK, well, where were you? Where were you when the rest of us were camping out and fighting?’ Look, that’s what this moment is about.

If you all want real talk, just stay in touch with me. I’m easy to find. I’m @TMFtx on Twitter. I am realtmftx on IG. And we do this straight talk here and my job is to educate as many folks as I can. And I’m from the streets. I’m from the west side of San Antonio. It’s a blue-collar neighborhood. You’ve got to hold your own and I’m not afraid to go pound for pound with anybody when it comes to this democracy.

Richard Chew: Wow. (Laughs.) I have to say this, respectfully. We’ve got a west side of Chicago and you’ve got a west side of San Antonio. (Laughs.) But it’s true, representative, we have to come to the fight different now. We have to step out of our comfort zones. As my good friend, Michelle Peltier, said right before you came on, we have to do that and we then have to hold that door open for other people, to your point, to come together in this fight. If you truly believe in this thing that we call democracy — and not even just democracy; just the right treatment of people — then you’ve got to be willing to fight a little bit differently this time. And I don’t mean you, I mean us collectively. And I’m so proud that you are one of those folks, and I’m glad you’ve got that list of who was with you on Aug. 5, 2025, because — (laughs) — I know exactly what that means. We know how that rolls, and I appreciate you saying it that way.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Well, I’m a football player, right? So you march all the way down the field, you get first and goal and folks come off the sideline, be like, I got it. No, man, where were you for the other 95 yards? We’ve got to do this and it takes a lot of hard work, but when we do this together, we are better than them. We are smarter than Republicans. We have better ideas than Republicans. Our ideals are what the country is all about. And man, we’ve can’t quit. We’ve got to keep grinding.

Richard Chew: That’s right.

Representative Trey Martinez-Fischer, thank you for being with us this morning. We’re going to stay in contact with you because I want to be able to get updates. I want to be on that list [so] that when we have this conversation down the road that we can say we shouldered up together and we got things done. So I appreciate your time with us this morning, our listeners all over the country do. We appreciate your leadership, your hard work. And I use this phrase — I get in trouble with it every now and again, but I don’t care. We’ve got your back, sir. We’ve got your back.

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: There you go, man, I know what that means and I’m grateful and I appreciate it. Thank you to all the listeners. This fight ain’t over. And man, we can use your prayers, love and support.

Richard Chew: You’ve got it, representative. Stay safe and we will talk with you soon, OK?

State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer: Yes, sir. Take care.