It seems some Americans are using their pilot licenses to fight rather than fleeing the country and just giving up.
On Monday, several planes were spotted over the capitals of blue states, including Albany, New York; Springfield, Illinois; and Annapolis, Maryland; with a message seemingly aimed at Texas Republicans and President Donald Trump: “Mess with Texas.”
Planes towing the banner also flew over Augusta, Maine; Trenton, New Jersey; and Sacramento, California, Politico reports.
The message is much more than just a clever play on the widely used Lone Star State slogan, “Don’t Mess with Texas,” which was initially used as an anti-littering campaign in 1986 but has since morphed into a swaggering declaration of state pride.
The multiple planes’ singular message was a desperate plea to lawmakers in Democratic states to help fight what many view as a gerrymandering scheme going down in Texas that will help secure Republicans’ control in the U.S. House after the midterm elections in 2026.
On Sunday, Democratic members of the Texas House fled the state to avoid a vote on a redrawn congressional map that Trump wants — and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is heavily pushing. The redrawn congressional districts likely would flip five seats currently held by Democrats.
And although states redrawing their congressional district boundaries is nothing out of the ordinary, it typically occurs once every 10 years when a new census mandates that districts need to be altered to better represent constituents.
“Redistricting in the middle of a decade is rare and almost always contentious,” The New York Times notes.
In response to Texas’ controversial move, the governors of some left-leaning states — like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) — are considering redrawing their state’s political maps to flip seats there to Democratic control.
And it seems like the people who are flying the planes with the “Mess with Texas” banners are pleading with Democrats to do just that.
Although it’s somewhat unclear who these pilots are, Politico described them as an “anonymous group of self-described democracy advocates,” according to a person briefed on the matter.
Local news outlet Maryland Matters attempted to track down the pilots by contacting two aerial advertising companies in Annapolis but were unsuccessful.
But the pilots’ sentiments do seem to align with Hochul, who welcomed the Texas legislators who fled Texas.
“We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law-breaking cowboys,” Hochul said Monday. “If Republicans are willing to rewrite rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us with no choice: We must do the same. You have to fight fire with fire.”
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