Texas Democratic legislators flee state to protest GOP’s redistricting plan

The legislators of the Democratic States fled Texas on Sunday in order to deny a quorum to the Republicans hoping to vote on a new map of the congress which strongly promotes the GOP even more than the current districts.

“For two weeks, while the families of the country of the hills cried the loss of more than 130 Texans in catastrophic floods, the Democrats fought to make their relief the absolute priority of the Legislative Assembly. Instead, Governor Abbott and the Republican Directorate used the tragedy as political coverage,” said Democrats de Texas House in a press release.

“… Governor Abbott transformed the victims of a tragedy into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump. We will not allow help in the event of a disaster of being held hostage to a Gerrymander.

The president of the National Democratic Committee, Ken Martin, said in a statement: “For too long, Donald Trump and the Republicans tried to run away by turning on the system, breaking the rules and stimulating power. It is time to retaliate.”

Texas governor Greg Abbott said the legislators said legislators until 3 p.m. on Monday, when the Texas House should come together, to return.

“For any member who does not do so, I will invoke the opinion of the Attorney General of Texas N ° KP-0382 to withdraw the democrats who disappeared from membership in Texas House,” said Abbott in a statement.

“The members of the Fun Democrat Chamber were elected to meet and vote on the legislation – not to prevent votes that may not go in their direction,” wrote Abbott. “Each session, legislators On both sides of the aisle To find yourself on the losing side of a legislative vote. And each session, most of these legislators find a way not to agree and behave like adults, rather than going awol. “”

Republicans Unveiled the new cards Earlier this week as part of a redistribution of mid-decennia in an attempt to protect the majority of the American GOP razor house. President Trump said in July That he believes that the Republicans could earn five other seats in Texas with different districts.

Abbott included redistribution to resolve in a special legislative session, as well as other high -level subjects such as rescue approval in the event of a disaster for fatal floods in Texas and a THC prohibition.

“For weeks, we have warned that if the Republicans in Texas want a force test – if they want to delay flooding of floods to protect with ladle Donald Trump from an inevitable crisis halfway – then we would give them this confrontation,” said Martin.

The two chambers of the Texas Legislative Assembly are controlled by the Republicans, but if most of the Democratic legislators leave the State, they could refuse the two -thirds of the Senate and the Senate of the two -thirds they need to vote on the new Congress cards.

At least 51 Democrats in Texas fled the state to Chicago. Politico was the first to point out that legislators had left the state.

“We are not here to have fun. We are not here because it is easy, and we have made the decision to come here today – we have not made a light decision,” said Gene Wu, leader of the Texas House minority, after arriving in Illinois. “But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that it is absolutely the right thing to do to protect the inhabitants of the State of Texas.”

The Texas Republicans currently hold 25 of the 38 seats in the State Congress. The party hopes that the new cards could bring this number to 30, and all these new seats were won by Mr. Trump in November by at least 10 points.

The five seats come from the rehabilitation of the districts of Rio Grande Valley – where Mr. Trump achieved gains in what was formerly democratic bastions – and combining representatives of Lloyd Doggett and Greg Cesar in Austin. In northern Texas, the 32nd district of the suburbs of representative Julie Johnson would be reshaped to extend from the Dallas region to rural republican bastions, and the representative Marc Veasey would be entirely moved from the County of Tarrant, who would leave only a small part of the county represented by a Democrat. The four seats in the Houston region have been redesigned, the Al Green representative being the most dramatic.

“They transform our districts into crazy forms to guarantee the result they want during the 2026 elections,” said Democratic State representative James Talarico in a message published on social networks. “If this power succeeds, they will cling to power without any responsibility of the voters.”

Wu said that the Texas Republicans “use a racist card and Gerrymanderd, a card that seeks to use racial lines to divide the working communities that have spent decades to strengthen their power and strengthen their voices, and Governor Abbott the fact in submission to Donald Trump.”

Democrats have fought against new districtsWith the leader of the minority of the Hakeem Jeffries room going to Austin on Thursday to initiate national support.

“We are not fighting for the Democratic Party, we are fighting for the democratic process, and the issues could not be higher. We have to take a stand,” added Talarico.

Martin Said in an appearance Sunday on MSNBC, “I am proud of the Texas Dems for having broken the quorum here. Our democracy is literally ensured by Donald Trump, Greg Abbott and the Republicans, who know that they are on a track to lose the majority of the house next year.

“We will certainly stand with people who will plead in the courts,” added Martin. “We will continue to organize ourselves in the field in Texas, and we will continue to support the Maison DEMS because they have broken the quorum at the moment.”

This is not the first time that the Democrats have left the State to refuse the Republicans a quorum – and not the first time they do it to protest against redistribution. During the redistribution of mid-December monument in 2005, the Democrats of Texas fled during two separate special sessions to stop the redistribution. But the redistribution finally crossed. And in 2023, the Republicans adopted legislation which takes a fine of $ 500 per day from the legislators who leave the State.

The last break from the significant quorum in the Texas Chamber took place in 2021, when the Democrats fled the State to prevent the restrictive voting bill from passing.

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to help the police “track down and force attendance” from all Democratic legislators who leave the state to block votes during the special session.

“If the Democrats ignore their duty to their voters by breaking the quorum, they must be found and arrested, no matter where they go,” said Paxton, who also presents himself for the appointment of the GOP during the race for next year.