Texas Democrats block GOP redistricting plan by fleeing the state

The Texas House of Representatives is at a standstill after Democrats fled the state over the weekend to prevent a vote on a bill to redraw Texas’ congressional maps. The bill heavily favors Republicans, with five new GOP-leaning districts, something President Trump has openly advocated for.

Republicans control the Texas House by a wide margin, but without Democrats present, their 88 members alone fall short of the 100-member quorum required to conduct business.

“To be absolutely clear, leaving the state doesn’t stop this House from doing its work — it just delays it,” Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows told the members in the chamber after failing to reach a quorum.

He then asked for the chamber’s doors to be locked and quickly passed a motion for the sergeant-at-arms to issue civil arrest warrants for unexcused, absent House members.

Many of the missing lawmakers fled to Democratic strongholds New York and Illinois rather than show up in the Texas Capitol in Austin for a vote they were certain to lose.

“This is like two football teams coming out of the locker room at halftime and the team that’s ahead says they want to change the rules for the second half because they want to win the game,” state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, told NPR from Illinois, where he is waiting out the quorum-break.

“I mean, we all recognize that as cheating, plain and simple. And if the Republicans are going to cheat, Texas Democrats are not going to play.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that the quorum-breaking Democrats should “behave like adults, rather than going AWOL,” and should be expelled from office.

On Monday, after the failed House session, he said he had ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to “locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”

Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, said in a news release that the current legal framework “allows for rogue lawmakers to be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol.”

Two Texas lawmakers attending the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Summit in Boston spent Monday speaking to reporters and warning their colleagues in other states of what may be coming for them, too.

“It’s Texas now, but it’s going to continue through the rest of the states, and it’s going to kill our democracy,” state Rep. Ana Hernandez told reporters.

She and state Rep. Armando Walle, a fellow Democrat, were both planning to come to Boston before the bill was called in Texas. They plan to stay out of Texas until the special session ends Aug. 19.

In New York, where several of the Texas Democrats decamped to avoid arrest, Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference in support of the lawmakers, indicating that her majority-blue state would explore redrawing its own electoral map. Given the state’s constitution, that may not be likely until 2027 or beyond.

“If Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us no choice. We must do the same,” Hochul said.

Redistricting usually occurs after a census, and mid-decade redraws like this one in Texas are rare, but other states, including California and Missouri, are pushing for redistricting in their own attempts to lock in partisan advantages. Ohio, which went heavily for Trump, is redistricting this year due to a 2018 state law.

This attempt by Texas Republicans was inserted into a special legislative session called by Abbott, the governor, to address the deadly Hill Country floods that killed at least 136 people last month. Texas Democrats decry it as a bait and switch.

“Governor Abbott has used this tragedy, taken these families who are grieving, taken these communities who are struggling to recover, and used them as hostages in a political game,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu.

“This vote is a profound act of contempt for the people of Texas. It is the final confirmation that to hold power, Republicans will gladly silence the voices of Black and Latino Texans who have fought for generations to be heard,” Wu said.

“When a majority uses its power not to govern, but to erase the voices of its fellow citizens, it forfeits its legitimacy.”

The fight over the newly proposed congressional map may just be getting started. A plan must pass the state House before the Texas Senate has its say.