No response returned

Dozens of Democratic state legislators fled Texas over the weekend, denying a quorum on Monday to Republicans hoping to vote on a new congressional map that heavily favors the GOP even more than its current districts.

Texas Republicans have responded by floating civil arrest warrants if their Democratic colleagues don't return to the state and threatening to have the missing lawmakers removed from office altogether. Democratic legislators have remained defiant, and have encouraged states led by Democrats to respond by redrawing their congressional maps — setting up a national standoff over redistricting.

"Greg Abbott has answered the call of Donald Trump, and he's holding this special session hostage to try to pass a mid-district, mid-session redistricting to try to steal five congressional seats away from the Texas people," state Rep. John Bucy, the top Democrat on the Texas House's elections committee, said of the Texas governor.  

"That's unacceptable, and that's why we're here to fight back," said Bucy, who spoke to TheNews in a Monday interview from Illinois, one of several blue states currently hosting the Texas Democrats.

Shortly after attempting to convene on Monday, House Republicans voted to approve a motion for the Texas House sergeant-at-arms to secure the attendance of all absent lawmakers, "under warrant of arrest if necessary."

"Leaving the state does not stop this House from doing its work. It only delays it," Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican, said in a brief speech Monday afternoon. 

He told Democratic lawmakers, "If you choose to continue down this road, you should know there will be consequences."

Before the House met on Monday, Abbott also said he would seek to "remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House," invoking a 2021 legal opinion from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton that suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited his or her office.

"The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation—not to prevent votes that may not go their way," Abbott said.

Texas House Democrats responded with a four-word statement: "Come and take it," a reference to a statement of defiance on an old Texas battle flag.

Republicans  last week as part of a mid-decade redistricting in an attempt to protect the GOP's razor-thin U.S. House majority. President Trump that he believes Republicans could win five more seats in Texas with different districts.

Abbott included redistricting to be addressed in a special legislative session, along with other high-profile topics like approving disaster relief for the deadly Texas floods and a THC ban. 

Democratic lawmakers announced Sunday evening they would leave the state to hold up the special session. "We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander. As of today, this corrupt special session is over," Texas House Democrats said in a statement.

"For weeks, we've been warning that if Republicans in Texas want a showdown — if they want to delay flood relief to cravenly protect Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown — then we'd give them that showdown," Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement, accusing Mr. Trump and Republicans of "rigging the system" and "scheming to hold onto power."

Both houses of the Texas legislature are controlled by Republicans, but if most Democratic lawmakers leave the state, they could deny the state House and Senate the two-thirds quorum that they need to vote on the new congressional maps.

At least 51 Texas Democrats have fled the state for . Politico was first to report the lawmakers had left the state.

"We're not here to have fun. We're not here because this is easy, and we did make a decision to come here today — we did not make a decision lightly," Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu said after arriving in Illinois. "But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas."  

Republicans in Texas currently hold 25 of the state's 38 congressional seats. The party hopes the new maps could bring that number up to 30, and all of those new 30 seats were won by Mr. Trump in November by at least 10 points.

The five seats come from redrawing Rio Grande Valley districts — where Mr. Trump has made gains in what were once Democratic strongholds — and combining Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Cesar's districts in Austin. In North Texas, Rep. Julie Johnson's suburban 32nd District would be reshaped to stretch from the Dallas area to rural Republican strongholds, and Rep. Marc Veasey would be moved out of Tarrant County entirely, which would leave only a small portion of the county represented by a Democrat. All four Houston-area seats were redrawn, with Rep. Al Green's being the most dramatic.

"They're turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 election," Democratic state Rep. James Talarico said in a message . "If this power grab succeeds, they will hang on to power without any accountability from the voters."

Wu said Texas Republicans are "using is a racist, gerrymandered map, a map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hard working communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices, and Governor Abbott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump."

Democrats have , with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries traveling to Austin on Thursday to pledge national support. 

"We are not fighting for the Democratic Party, we are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher. We have to take a stand," Talarico added.

said in an appearance Sunday on MSNBC, "I'm proud of the Texas Dems for actually breaking quorum here. Our democracy is literally under assault by Donald Trump, Greg Abbott and the Republicans, who know that they are on a track to lose the House majority next year. So what do they do? They cheat. They rigged the system. That's all they have left."

"We're certainly going to be standing with folks who will be litigating this in the courts," Martin added. "We will continue to organize on the ground in Texas, and we will continue to support the House Dems, as they have broke quorum right now."

This is not the first time Democrats have left the state to deny Republicans a quorum — and not the first time they have done it to protest redistricting. During the landmark 2005 mid-decade redistricting, Texas Democrats fled during two separate special sessions to stop the redistricting. But the redistricting eventually did go through. And in 2023, Republicans passed legislation that levies a $500-a-day fine on lawmakers who leave the state. 

The last significant quorum break in the Texas House was in 2021, when Democrats fled the state to prevent a restrictive voting bill from passing.  

Last month, Paxton in "hunting down and compelling the attendance" of any Democratic lawmakers who leave the state to block votes during the special session.

"If Democrats ignore their duty to their constituents by breaking quorum, they should be found and arrested no matter where they go," said Paxton, who is also running for the GOP nomination in next year's Senate race.

Abbott on Sunday said that "Any Democrat who 'solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept'" donations to help cover any fines they may be subjected to under Hous rules for skipping votes, "may have violated bribery laws."

As the efforts ramped up in Texas to redraw the maps, other Democrat-led states threatened to do something similar. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been one of the most prominent voices behind this effort, posting on social media after the GOP's new maps for Texas were unveiled that "California won't sit back and watch this happen."

Other governors have joined suit, with some of the Texas House Democrats joining New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for a press conference on Monday about the topic. Hochul said, "I'm tired of fighting this fight with one hand tied behind my back."

Pritzker also said Sunday "everything has to be on the table." 

But legally, it will be difficult to pull off in many of these states. Texas is one of a few states that allows the state legislature to set up the congressional maps, and can allow mid-decade redistricting. In California, an independent commissions is in charge of redistricting — and there is a law in New York banning gerrymandering for political gains. New York's congressional maps went through a number of legal challenges before the final maps were settled on. 

Hochul and New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie acknowledged it would require a change to the state constitution, but Heastie insisted that "we're in close conversations about options there, and so I would say we're presenting all options right now."

"It's very difficult to say play fair when your opponents are playing dirty and using every tool in their tool shed toolbox to kind of undermine democracy," Heastie said. 

As for Illinois, the state legislature draws the map and Democrats control the legislature — and they cut out two Republican seats when they redrew the maps in 2021. Prior to redistricting, Illinois had 13 Democrats and five Republicans in the House. The state lost a seat due to population loss, and they ended the 2022 elections with 14 Democrats and three Republicans.