The Texas state House briefly reconvened Monday afternoon amid a nationally watched clash over the GOP majority’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional lines, with Republican lawmakers voting to approve civil arrest warrants targeting the dozens of Democrats who fled the state, blocking Republicans from proceeding with the plan.
The bulk of the 50-plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, where they’ve been welcomed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, in response to Texas, is pushing for a change in state law to allow redistricting in future years.
There, beyond the reach of the state sergeant-at-arms and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the warrants may have little practical effect. But back home, the Democrats face mounting fines, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to boot the state Democratic lawmakers from office or send law enforcement to force them to return to the state.
Because House business requires a quorum, 51 out of the state’s 62 Democratic House members can, by remaining out of state, prevent the Republican-led state House from moving forward with legislation.
Those absences deprived the House of its quorum, a reality confirmed quickly after legislators gaveled in Monday afternoon.
Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows admonished the dozens of Democrats who fled the state as having “abandoned their post and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent.
“They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas,” he said.
“Leaving the state does not stop this House from doing its work. It only delays it,” he added.
Republican lawmakers immediately, under House rules, locked the chamber doors and moved for the sergeant at arms to “send for” the absconded lawmakers “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.” Burrows adjourned the chamber until Tuesday and told reporters shortly after that he followed through on the House vote and signed those civil arrest warrants.
It’s not the first time Democrats in Texas have fled the state to gum up the legislative works in protest of legislation they oppose — they did so in 2021 over GOP-backed changes to voting laws. Democrats faced similar threats from Republicans that time, but this time, Abbott has also raised the prospect of not only sending law enforcement after the Democrats but, asserting untested and tenuous legal authority, pushing courts to declare their seats vacant and call for new elections to fill them.
Abbott has also suggested that Democrats who are fundraising to support their quorum break may be committing felony bribery. (The Legislature enacted a $500-a-day punishment for breaking quorum after a similar Democratic effort in 2021.)
“I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,” Abbott said in a statement Sunday.
When asked whether President Donald Trump would call upon federal agents to arrest the Texas lawmakers who have left state jurisdiction, an administration official told NBC News: “Abbott can handle his own state.”
Asked about whether he would welcome help from the Trump administration bringing the Democratic lawmakers back to the House, Burrows replied: “There is nothing off the table.”
The clash stems from Abbott’s decision to call a special session of the Legislature this summer to address, among other topics, redistricting. Trump has pushed for a rare mid-decade redistricting, which the president has said would allow Republicans to pick up five more seats and pad their slim majority in the U.S. House ahead of next year’s national elections, when Democrats will try to flip the chamber.
The proposed map released by a Republican state lawmaker last week opened a path toward a five-seat GOP gain, shifting boundaries around major cities and in South Texas to create 30 districts that Trump carried by double-digits in last fall’s presidential election. Texas Republicans currently control 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats.
Democrats have decried the move as a power play and criticized Republicans for moving on the redistricting bill before responding legislatively to the devastating floods this summer that killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, outside of San Antonio. On Monday, Burrows shot back by arguing that Democrats are delaying their ability to move on other legislative priorities like addressing the floods.
Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, speaking Sunday evening after arriving at a news conference at a strip mall about 30 miles west of Chicago, said the redistricting bill is only happening because Trump is “afraid of the electorate next November.”
“Nobody wants this mid-redistrict draw. Nobody is asking for this. There is one human that wants this, and that is Donald Trump,” Johnson added. “And Abbott has turned over the state of Texas to try to serve his purpose. This does no good for the people of Texas. In fact, it takes away the voice of millions of Texas.”
But while many Republicans acknowledge the politics of the situation, they point to their party’s significant majority in the Legislature and control of Texas’ statewide offices as justification. Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut told NBC News over the weekend that he evaluated the map by asking himself the question: “Does this improve the political performance of Republicans in Texas?”
“When we’ve seen all of these blue states overperform with their maps and Texas is underperforming, that puts Republicans at a distinct disadvantage nationwide,” added Vasut, who chairs the state House redistricting committee.
What happens next?
The full scope of the Democrats’ plans aren’t clear. Texas’ special legislative session cannot last more than 30 days, but Abbott could continue to call new ones indefinitely.
While Pritzker has asked his staff to give the runaway Democrats logistical support, and the high-profile nature of the fight could help them raise funds to extend their trip, eventually one side has to cave.
“Democrats are looking to this as a messaging opportunity more than as a political or legal or legislative strategy,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “The options they have are pretty limited, so the best they can hope for is to use this as a spotlight moment to shine a light on some of the issues that they have with the Republicans in Texas and Donald Trump.”
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat representing Austin who helped to organize a similar Democratic walkout in 2021 in response to election legislation, told NBC News last week that the effort four years ago was “wildly successful” because it led to Republicans removing parts of the legislation — though the bills eventually became law.
“We could have never anticipated that the amount of publicity we brought onto Republicans would have shamed them into taking out those most egregious parts — so here’s what I know: I know we’ll fight with everything we’ve got. This is situational. We’ll take it day by day, see what our best play is,” she said.
Texas state Reps. Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez, who both represent Houston-area districts, were the only two Texas state House members to come to Boston. They had been planning to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual summit there. After the quorum break was announced, “we decided that it was a great opportunity to spread the word to our colleagues across the state, across the country,” Walle said on the sidelines of the summit.
The pair will fly to Chicago after the summit and will consider the logistics of travel plans beyond the special session that’s already been called “day by day,” Hernandez said.
Responding to the threats of arrest by Texas Republican officials, Walle reiterated the refrain used by his fellow Texas Democrats.
“Come and take it,” he said.
A group of state Senate Democrats, who also came to Boston for the summit, told NBC News that while they’d remain in the city through Wednesday, their future plans weren’t yet determined.
“I don’t know how long we can do this, but you know, we don’t win every battle,” state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt said. “We don’t know how this comes out, but to not fight this is simply not an option.”
