Texas Democrats left the state Sunday in an try to forestall the state Home from holding a vote Monday on new congressional maps that Republicans hope will internet them a number of further U.S. Home seats within the 2026 midterm elections.
WATCH: The Texas redistricting battle and its impact on next year’s midterms
The dramatic transfer might expose Democrats to fines and different penalties — with the state’s lawyer normal having beforehand threatened to arrest them in the event that they took such an motion. Refusing to attend legislative session is a civil violation, nevertheless, so Democrats legally couldn’t be jailed and it’s unclear who has the ability to hold out the warrants.
Democrats have forged the choice to go away the state as a last-ditch effort to cease Republicans who maintain full management of the Texas authorities from pushing by means of a uncommon mid-decade redrawing of the congressional map on the route of President Donald Trump.
“This isn’t a call we make frivolously, however it’s one we make with absolute ethical readability,” mentioned Gene Wu, chair of the Home Democratic Caucus, in a press release.
To conduct official enterprise, no less than 100 members of the 150-member Texas Home should be current. Democrats maintain 62 of the seats within the majority-Republican chamber. At the least 51 Democratic members are leaving the state, mentioned Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Home Democratic Caucus.
“Apathy is complicity, and we won’t be complicit within the silencing of hard-working communities who’ve spent many years preventing for the ability that Trump needs to steal,” he mentioned.
The transfer marks the second time in 4 years that Texas Democrats have fled the state to dam a vote. In 2021, a 38-day standoff befell when Democrats left for Washington, D.C. in opposition to new voting restrictions.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott referred to as a particular session of the Legislature that began final month to take up the redistricting effort, in addition to to reply to flooding in Texas Hill Country that killed no less than 135 folks in July. Trump has urged Texas Republicans to redraw the map to assist the celebration internet a handful of seats within the midterms subsequent yr.
“For weeks, we’ve been warning that if Republicans in Texas desire a showdown — in the event that they wish to delay flood aid to cravenly defend Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown — then we’d give them that showdown,” Democratic Celebration Chair Ken Martin mentioned in a press release. “That’s precisely what Texas Democrats did at the moment: blowing up Republicans’ sham particular session that’s nearly ignored the plight of flood victims in Kerr County.”
Speaker Dustin Burrows mentioned the Texas Home would meet as deliberate on Monday afternoon.
“If a quorum is just not current then, to borrow the current speaking factors from a few of my Democrat colleagues, all choices shall be on the desk. . .,” he posted on X.
Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton on X mentioned the state ought to “use each device at our disposal to seek out those that assume they’re above the legislation.”
“Democrats within the Texas Home who attempt to run away like cowards needs to be discovered, arrested, and introduced again to the Capitol instantly,” he wrote.
Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Sunday afternoon.
Texas Republicans final week unveiled their deliberate new U.S. Home map that might create 5 new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans presently maintain 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
By leaving the state, Democrats need to block Republicans from the wanted quorum to carry votes on the map set for Monday. The Texas Home has guidelines to positive lawmakers $500 every day they break a quorum. Paxton has mentioned beforehand that if Democrats break quorum, “they need to be discovered and arrested irrespective of the place they go.”
A big chunk of the Texas Democrats are heading to Illinois, the place Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker had been in quiet talks with them for weeks about providing help in the event that they selected to go away the state to interrupt quorum. Pritzker, a possible 2028 presidential contender, has been considered one of Trump’s most outspoken critics throughout his second time period.
Final week, Pritzker hosted a number of Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort. California Gov. Gavin Newsom held an analogous occasion in his personal state.
Pritzker additionally met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to start planning for the chance that lawmakers would depart for Illinois in the event that they did resolve to interrupt quorum to dam the map, based on a supply with direct information who requested anonymity to debate non-public conversations.
Now, with Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the Trump-backed congressional map, the stage could also be set for a high-profile showdown between Pritzker and the president.
Trump is trying to keep away from a repeat of his first time period, when Democrats flipped the Home simply two years into his presidency, and hopes the brand new Texas map will support that effort. Trump officers have additionally checked out redrawing strains in different states, equivalent to Missouri, based on an individual conversant in conversations however unauthorized to talk publicly about them.
Related Press author Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this report.