Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke didn’t mince words when talking about Texas Republicans’ attempts to create a new redistricting map that would disenfranchise millions of non-white voters.

“These motherfuckers are panicking right now,” O’Rourke said during an interview in New Orleans on Friday for Netroots Nation, a nonprofit organization for progressive activism.

O’Rourke was referring to Republicans’ attempts to arrest dozens of House Democrat lawmakers who left the state to deny House Republicans a quorum to gerrymander district lines.

Under the new proposed map, President Donald Trump would pick up five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas ahead of the 2026 midterms. The new map would also take voting power away from Latino and Black voters.

“You know that Trump asked Greg Abbott, our governor, to give him five congressional seats in Texas,” O’Rourke explained. “And thick as thieves, he and the Republican state legislature have been busy at work carving up the state. They were gonna vote on these five new districts on Monday, but thank god for Texas Democrats. Fifty-four of them left the state, broke quorum, said ‘To hell with that,’ and defied Donald Trump and stopped this power grab in the state of Texas.”

On Tuesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked the FBI to help Abbott (R) track down and arrest House Democrats who left the state. Abbott has also threatened to push for even more GOP-leaning congressional seats if Democrats continue to block the redistricting effort.

State Rep. Vince Perez (D-El Paso), one of dozens of lawmakers who left the state, told HuffPost the new redistricting would give Latino voters ― who number more than 11 million in the state ― just one-third of the political power of a white resident.

“This is clearly a racially engineered map that I think all Americans would be appalled by if they really looked at the details of this,” Perez said.

Along with threats of arrest, lawmakers have also faced threats of violence. Earlier this week, a group of Texas lawmakers was forced to evacuate their hotel in Chicago over a bomb threat.

O’Rourke has also been in the crosshairs of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said Friday he is suing O’Rourke for using his political group, Powered by People, to raise money to cover costs for Democrats who have left the state.

O’Rourke said it’s time for Democrats to fight back.

“They are betting that our side is going to give in and give up, that we are the old Democratic party that was more interested in concession and compromise,” O’Rourke said Friday.

He accused “older Democratic leaders” of “bending the knee and submitting to these guys.”

“Rather than saying ‘To hell with that, we’re going to fight you tooth and nail,’” O’Rourke said. “Whatever it takes to make sure that we are ruthlessly focused on stopping [Republicans’] power grab and making sure we win power ourselves.

“We’re not going to let Ken Paxton frighten us, intimidate us,” he added. “The country wants to see a fight.”