Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, DNC Chair Ken Martin join Texas Democrats in fight against redistricting plan

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Texas Democrats, along with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the Democratic National Chair Ken Martin, are meeting Tuesday to continue the fight against a redistricting plan to add five seats favoring Republicans.

The Texas Legislature attempted to meet Monday to consider a bill to redraw the state’s congressional districts, but Democratic members who left the state over the weekend did not return, denying the quorum needed to convene the session. 

Gov. Greg Abbott has since vowed to take steps to remove those lawmakers from their seats, and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said he had signed civil arrest warrants for the absent Democrats. 

In a press release, DNC Chair Martin said, “Instead of prioritizing disaster relief for flood victims, Texas Republicans are abusing their special legislative session to tilt the electoral map in their favor in a desperate attempt to cling to their razor-thin Congressional majority during midterms, after voting to cut health care and food benefits for millions of Texans.” 

A standoff in Texas after Democrats leave the state

Abbott has ordered state troopers to help find and arrest the Democrats who left the state, but lawmakers physically outside Texas are beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.

“If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences,” House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows said from the chamber floor, later telling reporters that includes fines.

Democrats’ revolt and Abbott’s threats intensified the fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but now includes Democratic governors, like Pritzker, who have pitched redrawing their district maps in retaliation — even if their options are limited. The dispute also reflects President Trump’s aggressive view of presidential power and his grip on the Republican Party nationally, while testing the long-standing balance of powers between the federal government and individual states.

The impasse centers on Mr. Trump’s effort to get five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas, at Democrats’ expense, before the midterms. That would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its fragile U.S. House majority, something Republicans were unable to do in the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first presidency. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 seats. That’s nearly a 2-to-1 advantage and already a wider partisan gap than the 2024 presidential results: Trump won 56.1% of Texas ballots, while Democrat Kamala Harris received 42.5%.

Mr. Trump said Tuesday that Republicans are “entitled to five more seats.” 

Status of the vote

Texas legislators who left the state have declined to say how long they’ll hold out. 

“We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer while in Illinois.

Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Gene Wu said members “will do whatever it takes” but added, “What that looks like, we don’t know.”

Legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, like in 2021, when many Democrats left Texas for 38 days to protest proposed voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans passed that measure.

Lawmakers cannot pass bills in the 150-member House without two-thirds of members present. Democrats hold 62 seats in the majority-Republican chamber, and at least 51 left the state, according to a Democratic aide.

The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders could “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served. Republicans answered by adopting $500 daily fines for lawmakers who don’t show.

Abbott, meanwhile, continues to make unsubstantiated claims that some lawmakers have committed felonies by soliciting money to pay for potential fines for leaving Texas during the session.