Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier abruptly left a redistricting call with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and other leaders today, saying she was warned of breaking the law.
“Sorry, I have to leave,” Collier said about 30 minutes into the call while she was responding to a reporter’s question. “They said it’s a felony for me to do this. Apparently I can’t be on the floor or in a bathroom.”
Collier, who didn’t specify what statute was invoked, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on who told her she was committing a felony.
After her abrupt exit, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said on the redistricting call that “Collier in the bathroom has more dignity than Donald Trump in the Oval Office.”
“What we just witnessed, them trying to shut her down and say it’s illegal for her to be in the bathroom, and on this call, this is the lengths that they’re going to in Texas to try to bring about a system so unjust and so unjustifiable,” he added.
Martin wrote on X after the incident: “What a disgrace. This is Trump’s America.”
Collier camped out in the statehouse chamber yesterday after she refused a security escort as part of the fallout from Texas Democrats’ returning to their home state. The Democratic legislators fled to other states this month to disrupt Texas Republicans’ plans to redraw congressional lines in their favor.
Before she left today’s call, Collier said Texas Republicans’ proposed maps were “the most segregated” seen in the state in decades.
“We’re going to fight as much as we can, whether it’s on the rules or it’s even on the policy. We will continue to push back on the Republican quest to dilute our voice,” she said.