Texas Democrats arrive in Illinois to block vote back home on redrawn
House maps sought by Trump
[August 04, 2025]
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ANDREW DeMILLO
A standoff in Texas over redrawn U.S. House maps sought by President
Donald Trump sharply escalated Sunday when dozens of Democratic
legislators left the state to block a vote, followed by Republican Gov.
Greg Abbott warning them that he will seek their removal from office if
they don’t return.
The revolt by Democrats, and Abbott giving them until Monday to come
home or face efforts to strip them of their elected positions, pushed a
widening fight over congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm
elections into new territory. At the center of the deepening impasse is
Trump’s pursuit of five more winnable congressional seats that will help
bolster the GOP’s chances of preserving their slim U.S. House majority.
In response to Texas' rare mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic
governors have floated the possibility of redrawing their own state's
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.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu declined to say how long
lawmakers were prepared to stay out of Texas, and it was unclear whether
the gambit 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.
“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” Wu
said at a Sunday night news conference.
The state of the vote now
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
majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh
Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. In addition
to those in Illinois, delegations of Democratic lawmakers left Texas for
Boston and Albany, New York, among other places, Rep. Trey Martinez
Fischer said.
Abbott threatened to seek the lawmakers' removal, saying they were not
meeting under the state's constitution.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in a statement released by his
office Sunday night. Abbott also suggested the lawmakers may have
committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they'd face.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still
meet as planned on 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 Attorney General 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 as punishment.
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Texas state Rep Chris Turner holds a map as he asks questions during
a public hearing on congressional redistricting in Austin, Texas,
Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
In calling for the lawmakers' removal, Abbott cited a non-binding
legal opinion that was issued by Paxton's office after the 2021
revolt by Democratic lawmakers.
The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new
warning systems in the wake of 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 new U.S. House
map that would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans
currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
Illinois hosts fleeing Texas lawmakers
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 own state.
Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic 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.
“This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it’s about rigging
the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,”
Pritzker said Sunday night.
Now, with Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the
Trump-backed congressional map, the stage may be set for a
high-profile showdown between Pritzker and the president.
Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats
flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and 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.
___
Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this
report.
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