{"id":116601,"date":"2025-08-03T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116601\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T21:53:07","slug":"texas-house-democrats-flee-to-block-gop-congressional-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116601\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas House Democrats flee to block GOP congressional map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.\n<\/p>\n

Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state Sunday in a bid to block passage of a new congressional map designed to give the GOP five additional seats in the U.S. House next year, raising the stakes in what’s poised to be a national fight over redistricting ahead of next year\u2019s midterm election.<\/p>\n

The maneuver, undertaken by most of the Texas House\u2019s 62 Democrats, deprives the Republican-controlled chamber of a quorum \u2014 the number of lawmakers needed to function under House rules \u2014 ahead of a scheduled Monday vote<\/a> on the draft map. The 150-member House can only conduct business if at least 100 members are present, meaning the absence of 51 or more Democrats can bring the Legislature\u2019s ongoing special session to a halt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,\u201d state Rep. Gene Wu<\/a>, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement, in which he accused Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> of \u201cusing an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most House Democrats left Texas Sunday afternoon en route to Chicago, with some also headed to New York to meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has condemned Texas<\/a>\u2019 mid-decade redistricting effort and entertained the idea<\/a> of retaliating with new maps in her state. A third contingent of lawmakers also departed for Boston to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures’ annual legislative summit.<\/p>\n

There are just over two weeks left of the Texas Legislature\u2019s special session, during which Abbott has also asked lawmakers<\/a> to take up measures responding to the deadly July 4 Hill Country floods, stiffer regulations for consumable hemp, and contentious GOP priorities such as cracking down on abortion pills and the bathrooms transgender people can use. The prospects for those items, along with the new redistricting maps, were immediately thrown in doubt by the Democrats\u2019 departure.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Wu said Democrats \u201cwill not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not walking out on our responsibilities; we\u2019re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,\u201d he said. \u201cAs of today, this corrupt special session is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have excoriated the mid-decade redistricting plan \u2014 which was demanded by President Donald Trump<\/a> ahead of a potentially difficult midterm election for Republicans \u2014 as a political power grab that would unconstitutionally suppress the votes of people of color.<\/p>\n

But locked out of power in the Legislature, Democrats have few tools at their disposal to fight the effort, even as they promised to delay the map\u2019s adoption and to use that extra time to educate Texans on what they framed as an attack on democracy.<\/p>\n

Preventing a quorum was the nuclear option, coming just before the map was set to reach the House floor. Republicans advanced the redistricting plan out of a House committee Saturday morning and later scheduled it for a floor vote Monday. Democrats could skip town long enough to run out the clock on the current session \u2014 which began July 21 and can last up to 30 days \u2014 but Abbott can continue calling lawmakers back for subsequent sessions.<\/p>\n

Texas House rules adopted by<\/a> Republicans in 2023 impose a threat of arrest and a $500-per-day fine on each lawmaker who absconds from the state. House rules also prohibit lawmakers from using their campaign funds to pay the fines, making the decampment a potentially expensive move. But Democrats have been raising money in recent weeks in anticipation of the quorum break, and those involved in the fundraising say<\/a> they have found a way to circumvent the campaign restrictions.<\/p>\n

Among those fundraising to support Democrats is Powered by People, a political group launched by former U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke in 2019. The group raised over $600,000 in 2021, the last time Democrats deprived the House <\/a>of a quorum, to help cover the costs associated with staying out of state, and an O’Rourke spokesperson confirmed the group is again supporting this year’s effort.<\/p>\n

The new punishment rules came in response to the 2021 episode, when Democrats fled Texas in an unsuccessful attempt to block new voting restrictions. That effort failed<\/a> after Democrats on the lam splintered, and enough returned to Austin and granted Republicans the numbers needed to resume business.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> wrote on social media<\/a> Sunday that Democrats \u201cwho try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Republicans called for House Speaker Dustin Burrows to take aggressive action against members who were not present when the chamber gavels in Monday at 3 p.m. Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, posted on X<\/a> that he doubted all the Democrats participating in the quorum break had actually left the state, and said Burrows, R-Lubbock, should send the House sergeant-at-arms or state law enforcement after anyone who wasn\u2019t on the floor Monday.<\/p>\n

On social media, the speaker said<\/a> if the House lacked a quorum Monday, \u201call options will be on the table.\u201d He did not elaborate on what those options might be, and his spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/strong><\/p>\n

National Democrats have offered their support, with U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, visiting Austin last week to strategize with state Democrats and vowing to stand with them in trying to block the new map.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 redistricting effort is also poised to set off a broader redistricting arms race, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom telling aides that he will move to redraw his state\u2019s congressional lines to advantage more Democrats if Texas Republicans pass their map, The Tribune previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s political operatives had pressured state leaders to draw Republicans up to five new seats<\/a> in Texas to help buffer the GOP\u2019s slim majority in the U.S. House against potential losses in a midterm election next year expected to favor Democrats. The first draft of the map was unveiled Wednesday<\/a>, targeting Democratic members around Austin, Dallas, Houston and South Texas.<\/p>\n

On Friday, at the lower chamber\u2019s only public hearing since the map\u2019s release, Texas Republicans made explicit<\/a> their political motivations for pursuing the unusual mid-decade redistricting, dispensing with a legal rationale offered by the U.S. Department of Justice and cited by Abbott in adding the effort to the special session agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not beating around the bush,\u201d Rep. Todd Hunter<\/a>, the Corpus Christi Republican carrying the redistricting bill, said about the goal of the map. \u201cWe have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While federal law permits redistricting for partisan gain, the Voting Rights Act prohibits diluting the votes of people of color. Democrats argued that the proposed map unconstitutionally packed voters of color into some districts while spreading them throughout others to reduce their ability to elect their preferred candidates.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey<\/a> of Fort Worth, whose seat would be partially dismantled under the new lines, noted at a committee hearing Friday that his district was drawn by a federal court \u201cto ensure that communities of color, Black and brown Texans, could finally have a voice in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, that voice is again under threat,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a map that was drawn behind closed doors \u2014 as we\u2019ve heard here today \u2014 to dismantle representation and weaken our power in turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13\u201315. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney<\/strong>; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson<\/strong>; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar<\/strong>, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher<\/strong>; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar<\/strong>, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!<\/a><\/p>\n

TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,327,7033,50,80,22204,5528,5526,5523,5525,5524,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-116601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-2026-elections","10":"tag-congress","11":"tag-democrats","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-redistricting","15":"tag-state-government","16":"tag-texas-government","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-texas-policy","19":"tag-texas-politics","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114967059027262561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}