Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over
Trump-backed redistricting
[August 04, 2025]
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and ANDREW DeMILLO
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he will begin trying to remove
Democratic lawmakers from office Monday if they don’t return after
dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn
U.S. House maps that President Donald Trump wants before the 2026
midterm elections.
The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois
or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come
home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps that began in
Texas but has drawn in Democratic governors who have floated the
possibility of rushing to redraw their own state’s maps in retaliation.
Their options, however, are limited.
At the center of the escalating impasse is Trump’s pursuit of adding
five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas before next year that
would bolster his party's chances of preserving its slim U.S. House
majority.
The new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five
new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the
state’s 38 seats.
A vote on the proposed maps had been set for Monday in the Texas House
of Representatives, but it cannot proceed if the majority of Democratic
members deny a quorum by not showing up. After one group of Democrats
landed in Chicago on Sunday, they were welcomed by Illinois Gov. JB
Pritzker, but declined to say how long they were prepared to stay out of
Texas.
“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,”
said state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader.
But legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including
in 2021 when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for
38 days in protest of new voting restrictions. Once they returned,
Republicans still wound up passing that measure.
Four years later, Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and
swiftly warning Democrats that he will seek to remove them from office
if they are not back when the House reconvenes Monday afternoon. He
cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney
General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a
legislator had forfeited their office.
He also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising
money to help pay for fines they’d face.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said.
In response, House Democrats issued a four-word statement: “Come and
take it.”
The state of the vote
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.
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.
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Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu along with other members
of the Texas House are joined by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker as
they speak about Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map
office during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage
County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP
Photo/Mark Black)
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.”
Fines for not showing up
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.
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.
Illinois hosts Texas lawmakers
Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender 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.
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.
___
Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this
report.
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