A standoff in Texas over redrawn U.S. House maps sought by President Donald Trump sharply escalated Sunday when dozens of Democratic legislators left the state to block a vote, followed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott warning them that he will seek their removal from office if they don’t return.
The revolt by Democrats, and Abbott giving them until Monday to come home or face efforts to strip them of their elected positions, pushed a widening fight over congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections into new territory. At the center of the deepening impasse is Trump’s pursuit of five more winnable congressional seats that will help bolster the GOP’s chances of preserving their slim U.S. House majority.
In response to Texas' rare mid-decade political gerrymander, Democratic governors have floated the possibility of redrawing their own state's maps in retaliation, but their options are limited.
Many of the Texas Democrats were bound for Illinois and a welcoming from Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, who in recent weeks has offered them support.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu declined to say how long lawmakers were prepared to stay out of Texas, and it was unclear whether the gambit would succeed. Four years ago, House Democrats left Texas for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions that still wound up passing once the holdout ended.
“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” Wu said at a Sunday night news conference.
Lawmakers can't pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus. In addition to those in Illinois, delegations of Democratic lawmakers left Texas for Boston and Albany, New York, among other places, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said.
Abbott threatened to seek the lawmakers' removal, saying they were not meeting under the state's constitution.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in a statement released by his office Sunday night. Abbott also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they'd face.
Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still meet as planned on Monday afternoon.
“If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . .,” he posted on X.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who “try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”
A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don't show up for work as punishment.
In calling for the lawmakers' removal, Abbott cited a non-binding legal opinion that was issued by Paxton's office after the 2021 revolt by Democratic lawmakers.
The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in the wake of last month's catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.
Texas Republicans last week unveiled their planned new U.S. House map that would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.
Pritzker, who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum.
Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state.
Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,” Pritzker said Sunday night.
Now, with Texas Democrats holed up in Illinois and blocking the Trump-backed congressional map, the stage may be set for a high-profile showdown between Pritzker and the president.
Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states, such as Missouri, according to a person familiar with conversations but unauthorized to speak publicly about them.
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Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this report.
