By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) -Texas Governor Greg Abbott called a second special legislative session on Friday, hiking pressure on Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to stymie Republican plans to redraw political maps at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump wants to use redistricting to help maintain Republicans’ slim control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections, but the plan has sparked strong opposition from Democrats who have threatened to retaliate.
Abbott said in a written statement that the second session would begin at 12:00 p.m. local time on Friday and that producing new maps that could give Republicans five more seats in Congress was on the agenda.
California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday unveiled a redistricting plan in his state that he says would give Democrats there five more Congressional seats, possibly offsetting Republican gains in Texas.
Democratic members of the Texas House left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on legislation. Republicans have maintained control over Texas politics for more than two decades, and Democrats in the state have broken quorum several times, trying mostly in vain to halt deeply conservative legislation.
Abbott said that redistricting plans, legislation to increase flash flood safety in the wake of deadly July flooding, and other legislative work remains undone because Democrats had refused to show up.
“We will not back down from this fight,” Abbott said. “That’s why I am calling them back today to finish the job.”
Many of the more than 50 Texas Democrats who fled the state have been staying in Illinois, out of reach of civil arrest warrants that could be acted on within Texas.
When the Democrats might return remains unknown.
The Texas House Democrats said in a written statement on Thursday that they will only return to Texas if their state’s special legislation is ended and once California’s redistricting maps were introduced.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; editing by Donna Bryson and Nia Williams)
