From The Texas Press Association
Texas Democrats left the state Sunday in hopes of derailing a mid-decade redistricting plan.
State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, announced the Democrats had left the state to break the quorum and stymie a vote in that chamber.
“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” Wu said in a statement. “Governor [Greg] Abbott has turned the victims of a historic tragedy into political hostages in his submission to [President] Donald Trump.”
Wu was referring to bills pending in the special session addressing the July 4 floods that killed at least 137 people in the Hill Country.
Democratic advisers told the media that the lawmakers will use Chicago as their base but plan to travel across the state to rally supporters to their cause.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted the fleeing Democrats.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote on X.
Republican lawmakers hope to gain five more seats in the U.S. House under a redistricting map unveiled last week during the ongoing special session, which was voted out of committee Sunday and sent to the full House.
The primary changes would be to urban districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin-San Antonio, and South Texas regions.
The unusual mid-decade redistricting comes at the behest of President Trump in hopes that the GOP can hold on to a majority in the House after the 2026 general election.
Texas Democrats in Congress called it an illegal attempt to dilute the state’s minority voices.
“This map is a disaster — crafted to divide neighborhoods and rig the game for Donald Trump,” U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, said in a statement. “It’s a desperate move from a party losing its grip on a changing
state.”
Meanwhile, a growing number of Texas Republican legislators are rejecting assertions by the U.S. Department of Justice that the current district maps, drawn in 2021 by a Republican majority, violate voters’ rights.
“I want to say right now, I don’t think the map that is in place for Congress today is discriminatory,” state Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said Tuesday.
The special session ends on Aug. 19. However, Abbott is free to call another special session if he wishes.