Kyiv mourns after a Russian attack that killed 31 people, including 5 children
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Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent months, ignoring calls from Western leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump to stop striking civilian areas after more than three years of war.
Russian forces are also pressing on with their grinding war of attrition along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where incremental gains over the past year have cost the lives of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
Ukraine wants more sanctions on Russia
Zelenskyy said that in July, Russia launched over 5,100 glide bombs, more than 3,800 Shahed drones, and nearly 260 missiles of various types, 128 of them ballistic, against Ukraine.
He repeated his appeal for countries to impose heavier economic sanctions on Russia to deter the Kremlin, as U.S.-led peace efforts have failed to gain traction.
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'No matter how much the Kremlin denies (sanctions') effectiveness, they are working and must be stronger,' Zelenskyy said.
His comments Friday appeared to be a response to Trump's remarks the previous day, when the Republican president said the U.S. plans to impose sanctions on Russia but added, 'I don't know that sanctions bother him,' in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine also called for an urgent U.N. Security Council meeting to be convened Friday, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, in an effort to push Putin into accepting 'a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire.'
Russian forces bear down on a key eastern Ukrainian city
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are under heavy pressure in the strategic hilltop city of Chasiv Yar, in the eastern Donetsk region where Russia is making a concerted push to break through defenses after some 18 months of fighting.
Zelenskyy said that Russian claims of capturing Chasiv Yar on Thursday were 'disinformation.'
'Ukrainian units are holding our positions,' Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Thursday evening. 'It is not easy, but it is the defense of Ukrainians' very right to life.'
Even so, the Institute for the Study of War said that Ukraine's hold on the key city is weakening.
'Russian forces will likely complete the seizure of Chasiv Yar in the coming days, which will open several possible avenues for Russian forces to attack Ukraine's fortress belt — a series of fortified cities that form the backbone of Ukraine's defensive positions' in the Donetsk region, the Washington-based think tank said.
Ukraine has tried to pressure the Russian army by striking rear areas with long-range drones that target rail networks, oil depots and arsenals.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that air defenses shot down 60 Ukrainian drones overnight. More than half were destroyed over Russia's Belgorod region on the country's border with Ukraine, it said. Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said that one person was injured.
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The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Nancy Mace launches South Carolina governor bid
Rep. Nancy Mace (R) launched her run for South Carolina governor early Monday, joining a crowded Republican primary field to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.). Mace posted a video that concludes with a graphic that reads 'Nancy Mace For Governor.' 'Do you like our X header?' she asked in a post on the social media site with the same image. Mace reportedly has an event scheduled at her alma mater, The Citadel, at 7:30 a.m. EDT Monday. The firebrand South Carolina congresswoman had teased a potential run in recent days. Last Monday, she released a video highlighting the governor's race and President Trump's praise for her. The video included the caption 'Coming soon.' According to Fox News, Mace told a crowd at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics over the previous weekend that 'not only do you pick presidents, maybe you can pick the next South Carolina governor too while we're here today, because we're going to be announcing a run very shortly potentially for that as well.' Mace joins fellow Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), state Attorney General Alan Wilson (R), Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R) in the primary. Mace told Fox News that if she launched a gubernatorial bid, it would be a 'two-man race' between her and Wilson. 'If I get in, I will fight to the finish, and I will take out South Carolina's attorney general, because he's turned a blind eye on women and on children and on the state for a lot of reasons. He might force me to do this,' Mace said. The congresswoman accused four men of sexual misconduct in a speech on the House floor earlier this year and accused Wilson of not prosecuting the men. 2024 Election Coverage Wilson has denied Mace's accusations, saying they were not made to him or his office. A poll released by the South Carolina Policy Council showed Mace narrowly leading Wilson in the primary among Republican identifying voters.
The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Redistricting battle heats up amid Texas showdown
In today's issue: ▪ How will redistricting affect 2026? ▪ Trump defends firing of labor official ▪ RFK Jr. targets childhood vaccine program ▪ Netanyahu, Putin provide foreign policy headaches Democrats are escalating their battle against Republicans' push to redraw political maps and give themselves a lift ahead of the 2026 midterms. In Texas, Democratic legislators on Sunday took the dramatic step of leaving the state in a bid to stop their GOP colleagues from advancing new congressional maps. The redrawn House districts would give the GOP five more pickup opportunities ahead of 2026, aiding their efforts to hold on to their slim House majority next year. Democrats blasted what they called a 'corrupt' special session in Texas as they accused Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and President Trump of seeking to 'rig' the midterms. The map was set to be considered by the entire state House as soon as this week after a panel advanced a draft over the weekend, despite protests from Democrats that it would suppress minority voters' voices. In a hearing, GOP legislators made explicit their efforts to redraw the map to advantage Republican candidates, The Texas Tribune reported. 'Different from everyone else, I'm telling you, I'm not beating around the bush,' state Rep. Todd Hunter (R) said about the goal of the map. 'We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.' Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin on Sunday praised the Texas legislators who left the state for 'standing up and showing real leadership.' 'And, after this fight is done, we're coming full force for the Republicans' House majority,' he said. The Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to deny Republicans the minimum number of present lawmakers necessary to conduct business. They employed a similar tactic the last time the GOP pursued midcycle redistricting in 2003, and held another walkout in 2021. Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D), who days earlier called such a move a 'last resort,' joined the walkout Sunday, saying it was 'time to fight back.' 'Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections right before our eyes. But first he'll have to come through us,' Talarico said in a post online. Abbott informed the lawmakers late Sunday that he would have them fined and attempt to have them removed from office if they do not return to Austin to pass the new maps. '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, who is running for Senate, posted on X. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said at a press conference Sunday night that the Texas state lawmakers who fled to his state will be protected. 'They're here in Illinois. 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,' Pritzker said. The fight threatens to set off a redistricting war across the country as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the House in 2026. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is considering redrawing his state's maps, and Pritzker, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have also left the door open to such a move. Meanwhile, Florida Republicans are increasingly pushing to redraw the Sunshine State's congressional map. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said last week he is 'very seriously' looking at making the ask of the state Legislature, arguing the 2020 census is flawed. Redistricting typically takes place every decade, with data from the decennial census. Republicans, well aware historical precedent is against the party in power during midterms, are eager to use the August recess to work to sell Trump's now-signed 'Big Beautiful Bill' to voters. The Senate over the weekend joined the House on break, and both chambers won't reconvene until early September. The walkout is drawing more attention to the red-state Democrats' redistricting fight, but the party faces limited options, and newly imposed fines and the threat of arrest also hang over those fleeing the state, The Hill's Julia Mueller reports. 'Democrats don't have many arrows left in their quiver. There simply aren't a lot of things they can do to be able to challenge these maps in the near term,' said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. If the maps do get approved, 'they're going to have to just fight it out on the ground and in the air' during the midterms, he said. 'It's going to shift from being a legal battle to being an electoral battle.' As they look to keep up with the GOP's push to redraw House lines, some Democrats are suggesting the party go around redistricting commissions the party has long championed. ▪ The Texas Tribune: Texas's proposed congressional map dismantles districts flagged by the Justice Department, which said four districts unconstitutionally combined Black and Hispanic voters. If the proposed map passes, two will still be multiracial. Blue states like California would likely need to change their laws for Democrats to undertake redistricting efforts similar to the GOP. Eric Holder, chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called Texas's plan 'an authoritarian move' by the White House. Holder, attorney general under former President Obama, for years led the charge among Democrats to eliminate gerrymandering. But Holder said Sunday on ABC News's 'This Week' that Democrats need to 'do things that perhaps in the past I would not have supported.' Martin, asked on NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday' about Democrats' prospects, said he views the redistricting effort as unconstitutional but said Democrats are ready to play what he called the Republicans' game. 'The reality is what we've seen already is a craven power grab, an unconstitutional power grab, in my mind,' Martin said. 'The Constitution says very clearly that we have a decennial census. We draw the lines after that. The state legislatures are allowed to do that, but it does not give them the power to essentially redraw the lines whenever the hell they want to do it. And what Texas is doing right now is a craven power grab.' 3 Things to Know Today Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) visited Jerusalem on Sunday after postponing an Israel trip earlier this year. Johnson said it was a 'moving time for us to be here' in a video posted online. Rep. Nancy Mace (R) is running for governor of South Carolina. She's released a launch video and is set to make a formal announcement today at The Citadel, her alma mater. Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley will take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) next year, adding a high-profile GOP name to one of the midterms' most consequential contests. Leading the Day BLS BLOWBACK: Trump and White House officials spent the weekend defending his decision to oust the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after a disappointing jobs report last week. Trump's firing of Erika McEntarfer has sparked backlash and raised questions about whether the president is trying to swat away negative news that could sour his economic celebrations — regardless of what the stats show. 'She had the biggest miscalculations in over 50 years,' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday afternoon, repeating his assertions, without evidence, that recent BLS reports were a 'SCAM!' Trump previously claimed that McEntarfer 'faked the Jobs Numbers' to be more favorable to Democrats. The president on Sunday said he would announce his new pick to lead the bureau in three to four days. 'The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they're more transparent and mo re reliable,' National Economic Council Chair Kevin Hassett said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. 'The big downward revision is something of a puzzle. I don't think it was explained very well. And I think that markets might be as much unsettled by the fact that the data are so noisy,' he added on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'Even last year during the campaign, there were enormous swings in the jobs numbers, and so sounds to me like the president has real concerns. You know, not just based on today's, but everything we saw last year,' U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on CBS. The latest BLS report suggested the economy and labor market are much weaker than previously thought — casting a dark cloud over the massive tariff overhaul that Trump has spent months promoting. 'Reliable economic data is a key strength of the US economy,' Harvard economist Jason Furman, who chaired Obama's White House Council of Economic Advisers, wrote online. 'I don't think Trump will be able to fake the data given the procedures. But there is now a risk, plus an awful appearance.' McEntarfer,a Biden nominee who the GOP-led Senate confirmed in a 86-8 vote last year, said Sunday that she still regards the opportunity to hold the position for the past several months as an 'honor.' 'It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy,' she said on the social media platform Bluesky. 'It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.' RAISING ALARM: Economist Justin Wolfers called the BLS chief's ouster 'an authoritarian four alarm fire,' noting the commissioner is ' the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality.' 'It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy,' wrote Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Michigan. Larry Summers, who served as Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, compared Trump's actions to former President Nixon 's administration before Nixon resigned in 1974. 'This is way beyond anything that Richard Nixon ever did,' Summers said in an interview on ABC's 'This Week.' 'I'm surprised that other officials have not responded by resigning themselves as took place when Richard Nixon fired people lawlessly.' Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said Sunday he thinks an investigation into Trump's BLS move 'is certainly in order.' 'That tells you a lot about their insecurity about the economy and the state of economic affairs in America because everything that they're claiming to be true is not true,' he said on 'Meet the Press.' ▪ The Washington Post: Trump's decision to fire the official responsible for compiling the nation's jobs statistics drew condemnation from economic experts who served in Republican and Democratic administrations. ▪ The New York Times: Trump's tariffs have started to generate a significant amount of money for the federal government — a new source of revenue that American policymakers may start to rely on. ▪ The Hill: Trump's plans for a $200 million White House ballroom is angering critics. GOP SET TO GO 'NUCLEAR': Senators left Washington for their August recess after a push for a deal on nominations collapsed Saturday. When they return next month, Republicans facing a Democratic blockade are intent on moving forward with a rules change to limit the length of time spent on individual nominees to more quickly confirm Trump's picks. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were unable to seal the deal on a package that would have allowed roughly two dozen nominees to be approved before the monthlong break. In exchange for allowing the group of nominees to be approved, Schumer had been pushing for billions of dollars of restored funding in foreign aid and for the National Institutes of Health. Trump, however, made clear that he would not throw his weight behind that agreement, referring to Democrats as 'extortionists' and praising congressional GOP leadership. Senate Republicans are expected to go 'nuclear' on nominees once they reconvene in September by moving to change the rules with 51 votes needed. 'Donald Trump didn't get his way,' Schumer said at a press conference Saturday night. 'Again, this shows us. He bullied us, he cajoled us, he called us names and he went home with nothing.' EPSTEIN LATEST: Republican lawmakers are cautioning Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) to be skeptical about a potential pardon or commutation for Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years behind bars for sex trafficking minors. Maxwell was recently relocated from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security site in Texas, after two days of meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the DOJ's No. 2 official. Her attorneys are seeking clemency from Trump in exchange for details she may offer about Epstein's crimes and other people involved. But GOP lawmakers argue that pardoning Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, would be unseemly. 'It's ridiculous that he would consider shortening a sentence for somebody who aided and abetted sexual trafficking as she did,' said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on the sensitive topic. 'She's trafficking underage children. I can't imagine anything she could say could nullify her heinous crimes.' ▪ The Hill: Trump railed against Charlamagne tha God on Sunday after the radio host predicted the Epstein saga would pave the way for traditional Republicans to take back the GOP from the MAGA base. ▪ The Hill: Trump weighed in on actor Sydney Sweeney 's controversial American Eagle ad, saying if she's a Republican 'I think her ad is fantastic.' Where and When Trump will have lunch with Vice President Vance at 12:30 p.m. The House and Senate are on recess until Sept. 2. Morning Report's Alexis Simendinger will return next week. Zoom In VACCINES: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is targeting the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a little-known but crucial initiative that underpins all childhood vaccinations. Kennedy took to social media and conservative activist Charlie Kirk 's show last week to rail against the program and pledge significant changes. Attorneys and other experts say Kennedy is right that the program, which was created in 1986 in order to give quick payouts to families who can prove a child was injured from a vaccine, is badly in need of modernization. 'There's a lot of low-hanging fruit that [Kennedy] can act on that would immediately alter the course of the vaccine program for the better,' said David Carney, a vaccine injury attorney in Philadelphia and president of the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association. But they fear Kennedy will tear it down entirely, at the risk of driving drugmakers from the market and threatening access to childhood shots. ▪ CNN: COVID-19 vaccine policy changes raise questions and concerns for U.S. adults as summer wave ramps up. ▪ The New York Times: Why Republicans think that insurance should be tied to employment — and that it's not essential to have at all. ▪ The Washington Post: Despite Trump's campaign pledge to help parents struggling to conceive, the White House has no plan to mandate insurance coverage of IVF care. FITNESS: Health experts and school leaders are thrilled with Trump's revival of the Presidential Fitness Test, but they are hoping for substantial revisions to the program, which was first deployed nearly 60 years ago. Advocates say the test, which hasn't been used since 2012, will need a makeover. Kayce Solari Williams, past president of the American School Health Association and a professor at Purdue University, hopes the test will switch from the old standard to really considering 'overall health and performance' and linking expectations to certain age groups. Williams stressed she has to see 'what the format' and 'requirements' will be as we 'know more about taking better care of the body and doing some prevention, along with strengthening and increasing endurance and flexibility' than we did in the past. ▪ NBC News: The Trump administration is launching a new program that will allow Americans to share personal health data and medical records across health systems and apps run by private tech companies. Elsewhere FOREIGN POLICY: Two key foreign leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have become headaches for Trump. The president is irked by Putin's refusal to do more to end the war in Ukraine, while imagery of starvation in Gaza is ramping up global criticism of Netanyahu, with whom Trump has long had a volatile relationship. In The Memo, The Hill's Niall Stanage writes that each of them has complicated the political calculus for Trump on the world stage, owing not only to the suffering they have imposed on Ukrainians and Palestinians, respectively, but also to their reluctance to change course. RUSSIA: Trump on Sunday confirmed two nuclear submarines have been positioned at an unspecific region near Russia in response to 'highly provocative statements' from Moscow. The move comes as the president said he was imposing an Aug. 8 deadline for a ceasefire, which Moscow has reacted to with a shoulder shrug. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 's top adviser urged the U.S. to 'strangle' Russia's economy by imposing secondary sanctions on Moscow's trading partners, as the White House's push for a ceasefire appears to languish. Republican senators left Washington over the weekend without advancing a major sanctions bill against Russia, giving Trump sole discretion over whether to follow through on his threats against Putin. While Senate Ukraine hawks wanted to see their sanctions bill pass before the break, they ultimately left the decision in Trump's hands. 'I think he's going to be very careful about what he does,' Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said when asked by The Hill if Trump can be trusted to impose costs on Putin. 'But I think he is clearly disappointed in Putin and I think he is now coming around to recognizing that many of us were right.' ▪ The New York Times: Ukrainian authorities arrested a number of officials on suspicion of corruption in relation to what they called a 'large scale' bribery scheme involving military procurement. ▪ The Washington Post: Long before Russia's 2022 invasion, war simmered in eastern Ukraine and these three families found a way to survive at home — until Moscow decided to seize Donbas for good. ISRAEL: With peace talks between Israel and Hamas at an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials appear to be changing their tone by signaling that they will push for a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza, rather than a temporary ceasefire. But the two sides remain far apart, and analysts said this new approach would also face steep challenges. 'President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once — no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work,' special envoy Steve Witkoff told hostage family members in Tel Aviv. 'Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time… we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it.' The shift comes as the Israeli government faces increased domestic pressure to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Israeli government faces mounting international criticism over the mass hunger that has spread through Gaza's population of about 2 million people, following Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid delivery. ▪ BBC: Some 600 retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, wrote to Trump to pressure Israel to immediately end the war in Gaza. ▪ Reuters: Hamas says it will allow aid for hostages if Israel halts airstrikes and opens permanent humanitarian corridors. The winds are also shifting in congressional attitudes toward Israel. While U.S. support for its closest Middle Eastern ally has historically galvanized both parties, that backing has eroded on Capitol Hill as Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza has dragged on and the Palestinian casualties have soared. The pushback is surfacing in different forms, from votes to block U.S. weapons sales and resolutions to recognize a Palestinian state, to accusations of genocide and other statements of public condemnation. Unlike debates past, some of the harshest rebukes are coming from conservative Republicans who have traditionally been stalwart defenders of Israel's military exploits. ▪ NBC News: How much aid has made it into Gaza since Israel said it was easing restrictions? ▪ The Washington Post: Israel's support for clans in Gaza puts tribal strongman in spotlight. Opinion Why Trump's meddling in the Bureau of Labor Statistics matters, by George A. Akerlof, guest essayist, The New York Times. How foreign policy could crash Republican midterm prospects, by Mark Weisbrot and Justin Talbot Zorn, opinion contributors, The Hill. The Closer And finally … 🔭 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched Phoenix, an uncrewed space probe, 18 years ago today. It touched down on the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008 — becoming the first successful NASA Mars landing since the Viking 2 mission 32 years earlier. According to NASA's mission summary, 'The Mars Phoenix lander was designed to uncover the mysteries of the Martian arctic, studying the history of water and searching for complex organic molecules.'
Newsweek
6 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Jasmine Crockett Speaks Out After Dems Flee Texas—'Get Aggressive'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Texas Democratic lawmaker Jasmine Crockett has spoken out about the importance of being "aggressive" to win political battles like the fight over redistricting taking place in Texas. At an event in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by progressive advocacy group MoveOn, Crockett spoke out after Democratic state lawmakers fled Texas on Sunday in an effort to stop a redistricting vote that would create a new Republican-approved congressional map. Why It Matters Republicans have slim majorities in Congress and traditionally, voters lean toward the party not in the White House in midterm elections. Therefore, Republicans are under pressure ahead of November 2026. Republicans have sought to redraw the districting map to bolster their chances in the upcoming election. It was thought the new map would give the party the opportunity to gain five seats in the midterms. But their political scheme was thwarted when more than 51 Texas Democrats traveled to Chicago to stop the vote, causing anger from critics and praise from political allies who accused Republicans of gerrymandering and voter suppression. Votes can only take place in the Texas legislature when two-thirds of the 150 members are present. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett attends "Storytellers - Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett" at the Tribeca Festival in New York on June 13, 2025. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett attends "Storytellers - Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett" at the Tribeca Festival in New York on June 13, 2025. Photo by Efren Landaos/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images What To Know When asked about her vision for the future of politics, Crockett said it was important to " be aggressive" to win political battles with the Republican Party. "I do want to be aggressive, because we're going to have to be aggressive because some of the things that have been broken such as some of our trade agreements, they may not come back," she said. She added that the U.S. "needs guardrails around the Supreme Court" to stop it from propping up President Donald Trump and to stop situations like those occurring in Texas and improve voting access. "I'm aggressive," she added. "So for me, I don't serve in the Senate, but I would get rid of the filibuster if it means that we can for voting rights because we don't get rights to repro. We don't get rights to healthcare. We don't get rights to education. We don't get any other rights if we don't have the ability to access the ballot box. So those are the things that I would do. I would get aggressive on the Supreme Court and I would get aggressive about making sure that we equalize this thing so that we can all access the ballot box." She added that she was "so inspired" by Texas Democrats. "Right before I got over here, my former colleagues from the Texas House, those Texas Democrats, decided to get the hell out of Texas," she said. "They decided to use whatever tools they could and breaking quorum is where they are at right now. And they didn't just do it by themselves. They went to Illinois where there is a governor that gives a damn. You see, this fight is going to take all of us." What People Are Saying Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened in a letter to remove Democrats from the state's House of Representatives if they do not return by Monday afternoon: "Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that's exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did…rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law." Texas state Representative Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a statement: "This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity. We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent." What Happens Next The Texas House cannot advance the redistricting bill or other legislative agenda items so long as Democrats deny quorum by staying out of state. Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton have indicated their intent to pursue civil penalties and possible arrests of absent Democrats. Meanwhile, redistricting issues are also brewing in other states. The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a dispute over redistricting in Louisiana, and earlier this year overturned a lower court decision that ruled South Carolina's congressional map was unconstitutional.
