Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday ordered the civil arrest of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a vote on a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan, escalating a standoff that has stalled the legislative session.
The absence of the Democratic lawmakers broke quorum, which meant the Home didn’t have sufficient members current to carry a debate on a invoice to redraw the state’s congressional districts so as to add 5 seats favoring Republicans. That prompted a Republican-backed movement for his or her civil arrests.
“In response to this dereliction of responsibility,” Home Speaker Dustin Burrows stated Monday, “in pursuant to the foundations of the Home, I’m ready to acknowledge a movement to position a name on the Home and another motions essential to compel the return of absent members. Ought to such a movement prevail, I’ll instantly signal the warrants for the civil arrests of the members who’ve stated they won’t be right here.”
Minutes after the session adjourned, Abbott made a post on his X account with a “Breaking Information” banner saying he had ordered the arrest of Democrats who fled the state.
Abbott ordered the Texas Division of Public Security to “find, arrest and return any Home member who deserted their responsibility to Texans;” nevertheless, Texas DPS has no jurisdiction out of state. A civil arrest would power the lawmakers again to the Capitol.
Abbott threatens removing from workplace as Texas Democrats block redistricting vote by breaking quorum
Gov. Greg Abbott stated he’ll start to take away Democratic lawmakers from workplace if they do not return after dozens of them fled the state in a last-resort try to dam the redrawing of U.S. Home maps that President Trump desires earlier than the 2026 midterm elections, though the authorized justification for that’s shaky.
“To those that are absent: return now,” Burrows stated. “Present the braveness to face the problems you had been elected to resolve, come again and fulfill your responsibility. As a result of this Home won’t sit quietly when you hinder the work of the folks.”
Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Value, motioned for the “Sergeant of Arms, or officers appointed by her, ship for all absentees who attendance is just not excused for the aim of securing and sustaining their attendance below warrant of arrest if crucial, and this order to be continued past the adjournment of at present’s session and till the additional order of the Home.”
The movement handed with a vote of 85 to six.
“The folks of Texas are watching and so is the nation, and when you select to proceed down this street, you must know there shall be penalties,” Burrows stated.
“This isn’t regular,” Democratic Rep. Ann Johnson stated in an interview with CBS Information. “Don’t suppose that we will flip right into a nation the place you arrest and jail your political opposition for not solely rendering their voice for the folks, however doing one thing that’s protected by the Texas Structure. A quorum break is written into the Texas Structure. It’s a device our founding fathers gave us. The specter of arrest is one thing that must be a crimson alarm for lots of oldsters.”
Trump says GOP is “entitled to 5 extra seats”
Showing on CNBC on Tuesday, Mr. Trump insisted that about redistricting, Democrats “did it to us.” Mr. Trump pointed to states like Illinois and Massachusetts, which he stated ought to have extra Republican illustration.
Mr. Trump has insisted they might decide up five more seats in Texas with new districts. Republicans have a razor-thin majority within the U.S. Home going into the 2026 midterms, which traditionally favor the social gathering not within the White Home.
“We’ve a possibility in Texas to choose up 5 seats,” Mr. Trump stated. “We’ve a extremely good governor, and now we have good folks in Texas. And I received Texas. I acquired the very best vote within the historical past of Texas, as you in all probability know. And, we’re entitled to 5 extra seats.”
Texas Democratic legislators flee state to protest GOP’s redistricting plan
State Home Democrats went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to come back dwelling, ratcheting up a widening fight over congressional maps that started in Texas however has drawn in Democratic governors who’ve floated the potential of dashing to redraw their very own state’s maps in retaliation. Their choices, nevertheless, are restricted.
On the middle of the escalating deadlock is Mr. Trump’s pursuit of including 5 extra GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas earlier than subsequent 12 months that will bolster his social gathering’s possibilities of preserving its slim U.S. Home majority.
“Greg Abbott is attempting to silence the voices of Texans and forestall them from choosing the elected officers of their alternative, and now he is actually saying he will take away the representatives that the folks have put into workplace,” stated Democratic State Rep. James Talarico. “So he is taken a web page of Donald Trump’s authoritarian playbook, and it is one thing we must always all shield.”
The brand new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans at present maintain 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
A vote on the proposed maps had been set for Monday within the Texas Home of Representatives, nevertheless it can’t proceed if nearly all of Democratic members deny a quorum by not exhibiting up. After one group of Democrats landed in Chicago on Sunday, they had been welcomed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, however declined to say how lengthy they had been ready to remain out of Texas.
“We are going to do no matter it takes. What that appears like, we do not know,” stated state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas Home Democratic Caucus chief.
However legislative walkouts usually solely delay passage of a invoice, together with in 2021 when most of the similar Texas Home Democrats left the state for 38 days in protest of latest voting restrictions. As soon as they returned, Republicans nonetheless wound up passing that measure.
4 years later, Abbott is taking a much more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he’ll search to take away them from workplace if they don’t seem to be again when the Home reconvenes Monday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 authorized opinion issued by Republican Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton, which steered a court docket may decide {that a} legislator had forfeited their workplace.
He additionally steered the lawmakers could have dedicated felonies by elevating cash to assist pay for fines they’d face.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott stated.
In response, Home Democrats issued a four-word assertion: “Come and take it.”
The state of the vote
Lawmakers cannot go 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 left the state, stated Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Home Democratic Caucus.
Republican Home Speaker Dustin Burrows stated the chamber would nonetheless meet as deliberate on Monday afternoon.
“If a quorum is just not current then, to borrow the current speaking factors from a few of my Democrat colleagues, all choices shall be on the desk. . .,” he posted on X.
Paxton, who’s running for U.S. Senate, stated on X that Democrats who “try to run away like cowards must be discovered, arrested, and introduced again to the Capitol instantly.”
Fines for not exhibiting up
A refusal by Texas lawmakers to indicate up is a civil violation of legislative guidelines. The Texas Supreme Court docket held in 2021 that Home leaders had the authority to “bodily compel the attendance” of lacking members, however no Democrats had been forcibly introduced again to the state after warrants had been served that 12 months. Two years later, Republicans pushed by way of new guidelines that permit every day fines of $500 for lawmakers who do not present up for work as punishment.
The quorum break will even delay votes on flood reduction and new warning techniques within the wake of final month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at the least 136 folks. Democrats had known as for votes on the flooding response earlier than taking over redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.
