Texas House Democrats left the state Sunday to prevent a vote on the Republican effort backed by President Donald Trump to rewrite the state’s congressional map.
The redistricting, if passed, could potentially eliminate five Democratic US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as the GOP seeks to hold on to its slim House majority.
The Texas politicians are expected to arrive in Chicago and Albany, New York, on Sunday evening after a decision that state House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said was not made lightly but with “absolute moral clarity.”
States typically redraw congressional district boundaries once every 10 years following the release of updated population data from the United States census. A mid-decade revision of the map would be an extraordinary move — one that Democrats contend is a nakedly partisan effort aimed at bolstering Republicans prospects of retaining control of the House.
Two-thirds of the Texas House is required for a quorum, the minimum amount of legislators to vote on bills. Democrats in the legislature attempted the same move in 2021 to block a bill that would have imposed new voting restrictions. After that unsuccessful effort, new rules were put in place to fine members $500 a day if a member is absent, including “for the purpose of impeding the action of the House.”
Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and a candidate for US Senate, said Sunday evening that “Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”
“We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,” he continued in a post on X, though he did not specify which tools could be used.
Texas Republicans argue the redistricting is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. Democrats have said it would suppress the votes of people of color.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “is using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal,” Wu said in a statement. “Apathy is complicity, and we will not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that Trump wants to steal.”
Democrats nationwide have threatened to respond to the GOP’s efforts at redistricting in Texas with the same tactics in Democratic-controlled states like California and New York. National Democratic Redistricting Committee Chairman Eric Holder, a longtime critic of partisan gerrymandering, says it may be time for Democrats to change their approach.
“We have to understand that the nature of the threat that has been put upon the country through what they’re trying to do in Texas has really increased the danger to our democracy. And as a result of that, we’ve got to do things that perhaps in the past, I would not have supported,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Holder, a former attorney general, said Democrats would still pursue avenues including raising voter awareness and bringing litigation against the state.
The Texas Democrats’ departure comes as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has plotted for more than a month with party officials in the Lone Star State to potentially provide safe harbor for the lawmakers, a source with knowledge of the Democratic governor’s involvement told CNN.
Pritzker quietly met with the chair of the Texas Democratic Party at an event for the Oklahoma Democratic Party on June 28. There, the two discussed rumors that Abbott could include calls to redraw the state’s congressional map in a newly announced special legislative session, the source said. Pritzker at the time said Texas lawmakers could come to Illinois if they fled to block a quorum.
In mid-July, Pritzker hosted eight Texas lawmakers and held a meeting to further discuss the planning. In the background, Pritzker’s staff was working with Texas Democrats to provide logistical support, including finding places where they could stay and work while in the state, the source added.
Pritzker will join Texas Democrats arriving in Illinois at a news conference later Sunday evening.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is set to hold an event Monday with the lawmakers who left for her state, said in a statement to CNN that “We won’t sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system to give Donald Trump more unchecked power. Texas Democrats are standing up for the future of democracy and I’m proud to stand with them in the fight against disenfranchisement.”
Former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke said his fellow Texas Democrats are doing “exactly what the country needs.”
“If Trump succeeds in stealing these five congressional districts, if he holds on to the House of Representatives, then the consolidation of authoritarian power in America may be unstoppable,” O’Rourke told CNN on Sunday after he held a rally in Indianapolis. O’Rourke said his political action committee, Powered By People, will raise money to support the House Democrats, who could face $500-per-day fines and are barred from using campaign funds to pay them.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin also praised the Texas Democrats, saying in a statement Sunday, “We will fight alongside them to stop this anti-democratic assault. And, after this fight is done, we’re coming full force for the Republicans’ House majority.”
CNN’s Gloria Pazmino and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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