Texas Democrats flee state to block GOP plan to redraw electoral map - and get threatened with arrest
The Texas House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting advanced the GOP's proposals on Saturday, setting up a full House vote this week.
The conservatives hold a majority in the chamber, as they do in the Texas Senate, meaning the gerrymandering to revise the state's 38 congressional districts would likely pass. It would create five extra right-leaning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, potentially expanding the congressional GOP's majority and easing the passage of President Donald Trump 's legislative agenda.
Faced with that prospect, 51 opposition Democrats departed for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts over the weekend in an attempt to deny the Republicans a quorum, with two-thirds of the state's 150-member legislative complex required to be in attendance for business to proceed.
'We're not here to have fun,' Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu told reporters in Carol Stream, Illinois, flanked by members of his delegation and Governor JB Pritzker as he spoke.
'We're not here because this is easy, and we did not make a decision to come here today, we did not make a decision lightly.
'But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is the… absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas.'
The representatives have the support of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in employing the tactic, which Texas Democrats also deployed in 2003 and 2021, with DNC Chair Ken Martin saying in a statement: 'The DNC is proud to support these legislators in standing up and showing real leadership.
'We will fight alongside them to stop this anti-democratic assault. And, after this fight is done, we're coming full force for the Republicans' House majority.'
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries likewise expressed support, saying the group was showing 'courage, conviction and character.'
The desperate measures will not come without personal consequences for the lawmakers involved in the exodus, each of whom stands to be fined $500 for every day they are away for breaking quorum.
They could also face arrest.
'Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,' Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, fumed on social media. 'We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.'
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, also a Republican, wrote: 'The Texas House will be convening at 3.00pm tomorrow [Monday]. If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table…'
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott presented the rebels with the same deadline and warned they will be removed from office if they fail to show up.
For his part, Illinois Gov. Pritzker, speaking alongside Wu, said: 'We're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that – 'cause we know they're doing the right thing, we know that they're following the law.'
The redistricting push in question would have an impact on the Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houstin and Rio Grande Valley areas and could inspire retaliatory measures by Democrats in blue states.
Redistricting typically takes place once a decade to account for natural population shifts and is overseen in many states by non-partisan committees, although not in Texas.
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