Democrats within the Texas Home left the state Sunday in a last-resort bid to dam new congressional maps sought by President Donald Trump that will give Republicans a greater probability of preserving their slim U.S. Home majority within the 2026 midterm elections.
The dramatic revolt got here earlier than the GOP-controlled state Home was set to vote Monday on the proposed maps, which might give Republicans 5 extra winnable congressional seats. In response to Texas’ uncommon mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic governors have floated the opportunity of redrawing their very own state’s maps in retaliation, however their choices are restricted.
Most of the Texas Democrats had been sure for Illinois and a welcoming from Gov. JB Pritzker, a possible 2028 presidential contender, who in latest weeks has supplied them help. It was not clear how lengthy they had been ready to remain out of Texas or whether or not the gambit would succeed — 4 years in the past, Home Democrats left Texas for 38 days in protest of recent voting restrictions that also wound up passing as soon as 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 Home Democratic Caucus, mentioned in a press release.
Alex Wong through Getty Photographs
To conduct official enterprise, at the least 100 members of the 150-member Texas Home should be current. Democrats maintain 62 of the seats within the majority-Republican chamber. At the least 51 Democratic members are leaving the state, mentioned Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Home Democratic Caucus.
“Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal,” he mentioned.
The transfer marks the second time in 4 years that Texas Democrats have fled the state to dam a vote. In 2021, a 38-day standoff came about when Democrats left for Washington in opposition to new voting restrictions.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott known as a particular session of the Legislature that began final month to take up the redistricting effort, in addition to to reply to flooding in Texas Hill Nation that killed at the least 135 individuals in July. Trump has urged Texas Republicans to redraw the map to assist the occasion web a handful of seats within the midterms subsequent yr.
Texas Republicans final week unveiled their deliberate new U.S. Home map that will create 5 new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans at the moment maintain 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
The state of the vote now
Lawmakers can’t cross payments within the 150-member Texas Home with out at the least two-thirds of them current. Democrats maintain 62 of the seats within the majority-Republican chamber and at the least 51 had been leaving the state, mentioned Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Home Democratic Caucus. Along with the Illinois group, 5 lawmakers headed to New York and one other group went to Boston, Rush Nisenson mentioned.
Republican Home Speaker Dustin Burrows mentioned the chamber would nonetheless meet as deliberate 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 Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton, who’s working for U.S. Senate, mentioned 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 point out up is a civil violation of legislative guidelines. The Texas Supreme Court docket held in 2021 that Home leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of lacking members, however no Democrats had been forcibly introduced again to the state after warrants had been served that yr. Two years later, Republicans pushed via new guidelines that enable each day fines of $500 for lawmakers who don’t present up for work as punishment.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Sunday.
The quorum break can even delay votes on flood reduction and new warning methods within the wake of final month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at the least 136 individuals. Democrats had known as for votes on the flooding response earlier than taking on redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.
Texas Republicans final week unveiled their deliberate new U.S. Home map that will create 5 new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans at the moment maintain 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
Illinois hosts fleeing Texas lawmakers
Pritzker, who has been certainly one of Trump’s most outspoken critics throughout his second time period, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about providing help in the event that they selected to depart the state to interrupt quorum.
Final week, the governor hosted a number of Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held the same occasion in his personal state.
Pritzker additionally met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to start planning for the likelihood that lawmakers would depart for Illinois in the event that they did determine to interrupt quorum to dam the map, based on a supply with direct information who requested anonymity to debate personal conversations.
Now, with Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the Trump-backed congressional map, the stage could also be set for a high-profile showdown between Pritzker and the president.
Trump is trying to keep away from a repeat of his first time period, when Democrats flipped the Home simply two years into his presidency, and hopes the brand new Texas map will support that effort. Trump officers have additionally checked out redrawing traces in different states, comparable to Missouri, based on an individual acquainted with conversations however unauthorized to talk publicly about them.
Related Press author Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this report.
