Texas Democrats leave the state to block vote on gerrymandered congressional map
The dramatic revolt came before the GOP-controlled House was set to vote Monday on the proposed maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable congressional seats. In response to Texas' rare mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic governors in other states have floated the possibility of redrawing their own maps in retaliation, but their options are limited.
Many of the Texas Democrats were bound for Illinois and a welcoming from Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, who in recent weeks has offered them support. It was unclear how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas or whether the maneuver would succeed. Four years ago, House Democrats left Texas for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions that still wound up passing once the holdout ended.
'This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,' Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.
Lawmakers can't pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the Republican-majority chamber, and at least 51 were leaving the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. In addition to the Illinois group, five lawmakers headed to New York and another group went to Boston, Rush Nisenson said.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would meet as planned Monday afternoon.
'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,' he posted on X.
Republican Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who 'try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.'
A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to 'physically compel the attendance' of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don't show up for work.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in response to last month's catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.
Texas Republicans last week unveiled their planned U.S. House map that would create five GOP-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state's 38 seats.
Pritzker, who has been one of Trump's most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum.
Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his state.
Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Now, with many Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the gerrymandered map proposal, the stage may be set for a high-profile showdown between Pritzker and Trump.
The Republican president is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House two years into his presidency, and he hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states, such as Missouri, according to a person familiar with conversations but unauthorized to speak publicly about them.
Cappelletti and DeMillo write for the Associated Press. AP writer Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
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Illinois might be able to get 'creative' with its approach to redrawing lines and squeeze the existing three GOP-held seats, Levitt suggested. But an aggressive gerrymander in the Prairie State could backfire, suggested Cervas, 'because then you cut the margins of the Democratic seats too thin and risk losing some of them, too.' 'All that boils down to is that there are few legal ways for Democrats to counteract Texas, and there are very few practical ways of doing it as well,' he added. These conversations come against the backdrop of a 2019 ruling by the Supreme Court that excessive partisan gerrymandering is a political issue, rather than a question for federal courts. 'When you don't have recourse … you do exactly what's going on here, which is the [Texas] Democrats leave town and Democrats elsewhere try to figure out how to punch back,' Levitt said. 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