Democratic legislators in Texas flee the state to protest against the GOP redistribution plan; The Republicans vote on the arrest warrants

Dozens of legislators from the Democratic States fled Texas over the weekend, refusing a quorum to the Republicans on Monday in the hope of voting on a new Congress map which strongly promotes the GOP even more than its current districts.

The Texas Republicans responded with floating civil mandates if their democratic colleagues do not return to the state and threatening to ensure that the missing legislators have completely dismissed. Democratic legislators have remained provocative and encouraged the States led by Democrats to react by restoring their Congress cards – setting up a national dead end on redistribution.

“Greg Abbott responded to Donald Trump’s call, and he organizes this special hostage session to try to rediscover in the middle of the district to try to fly five seats in the Congress far from the people of Texas,” said State representative, John Bucy, the Democrat of the Texas House electoral commission, about the Governor of Texas.

“This is unacceptable, and that is why we are here to retaliate,” said Bucy, who spoke to CBS News in an interview on Monday from Illinois, one of the many blue states currently welcoming the Democrats.

Shortly after trying to meet on Monday, the Republicans of the House voted to approve a request for the Texas House sergeant, to ensure the presence of all absent legislators, “under arrest warrant if necessary”.

“Leaving the state does not prevent this house from doing his job. He only delayed him,” said the president of the Texas Chamber, Dustin Burrows, a republican, in a brief speech on Monday afternoon.

He told Democratic legislators: “If you choose to continue on this path, you should know that there will be consequences.”

Before the Chamber met on Monday, Abbott also said that he would seek to “withdraw the missing democrats from Texas House members”, invoking a legal opinion in 2021 of the republican prosecutor Ken Paxton who suggested that a court could determine that a legislator had lost his office.

“The members of the Funite Democratic Chamber were elected to meet and vote on the legislation – not to prevent votes that may not go in their direction,” said Abbott.

The Democrats of Texas House responded with a declaration of four words: “Come and take it”, a reference to a declaration of challenge on a former battle flag of Texas.

Democrats protest on the Map of the Texas Congress dominated by the GOP

Republicans Unveiled the new Congress cards Last week, as part of a redistribution in mid-December, in order 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.

Democratic legislators announced Sunday evening that they would leave the state to hold the special session:
“We will not allow help in the event of a disaster to be kept hostage to a Gerrymander Trump. To date, this corrupt special session is over,” the Democrats of Texas House said in a statement.

“For weeks, we have warned that if the Republicans in Texas want a confrontation – if they want to delay flooding of floods to protect Donald Trump with ladle against an inevitable mid -term collapse – then we would give them this confrontation,” said the president of the National Democratic Committee, Ken Martin, in a press release, accusing Mr. Trump and system “and” denounce power “. “”

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, 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.

Abbott said on Sunday that “any Democrat who” requests, accepts or agrees to accept “” donations to help cover any fine to which they could be subject to housing rules to skip votes “,” may have raped corruption laws “.

Can other states make redistribution efforts?

While efforts are accelerating in Texas to redraw the cards, other states led by Democrats have threatened to do something similar. California Governor Gavin Newsom was one of the most important voices of this effort, publishing on social networks after the new GOP cards for Texas have been revealed that “California will not sink and will not watch this happen”.

Other governors have joined the costume, some of the Democrats in the Texas Chamber joining the New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Monday for a press conference on the subject. Hochul said: “I’m tired of fighting this fight with a hand attached behind my back.”

Pritzker also said on Sunday “everything must be on the table”.

But legally, it will be difficult to succeed in many of these states. Texas is one of the few states that allows the state’s legislature to create the Congress maps and can allow the redistribution of mid-December. In California, an independent commission is responsible for redistribution – and there is a law in New York prohibiting Gerrymandering for political gains. The cards of the New York Congress experienced a number of legal challenges before the final cards were set.

The lecturer of the assembly of Hochul and New York, Carl Heastie, admitted that she would require a change for the constitution of the State, but Heastie insisted that “we are in close conversations on the options there, and I would therefore say that we present all the options at the moment”.

“It is very difficult to say play just when your opponents play dirty and use all the tools in their tool toolbox to undermine democracy,” said Heastie.

As for the Illinois, the state’s legislature attracts the map and the democrats control the legislative assembly – and they cut two republican seats when they restarted the cards in 2021. Before rediscovering, the Illinois had 13 democrats and five Republicans in the Chamber. The state lost a seat due to the loss of population and ended the elections in 2022 with 14 democrats and three Republicans.