Democrats prevent Texas House from moving forward with Trump-backed congressional map

Texas Democrats on Monday prevented their state’s House of Representatives from moving forward, at least for now, with a redrawn congressional map sought by President Donald Trump to shore up Republicans’ 2026 midterm prospects as his political standing falters.

After dozens of Democrats left the state, the Republican-dominated House was unable to establish the quorum of lawmakers required to do business. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made threats about removing members of the opposition from their seats. Democrats have countered that Abbott is using “smoke and mirrors” to assert legal authority he does not have.

The Republican-dominated House issued civil arrest warrants intended to compel the return of absent members, but it was not immediately clearly whether those could or would be enforced beyond Texas borders.

Democratic lawmakers board a plane at Signature Aviation at the South Terminal, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

“If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences,” House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows said from the chamber floor. He later told reporters that includes fines and said Abbott has offered assistance from the state Department of Public Safety to round up absent legislators.

The Democratic revolt and Abbott’s threats ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but expanded to include Democratic governors who have floated the possibility of rushing to redraw their own state maps in retaliation, even if their options are limited. The dispute also offers another example of Trump’s aggressive view of presidential power and his grip on the Republican Party nationally, while testing the longstanding balance of powers between the federal government and individual states.

At the center of the escalating impasse is Trump’s hope of adding five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas before the upcoming midterms. That would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its slim U.S. House majority, something Republicans were unable to do in the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first presidency. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 seats. That’s nearly a 2-to-1 advantage and already a wider partisan gap than in the 2024 presidential election, when Trump won 56.1% of the vote, while Democrat Kamala Harris received 42.5%.

Speaking Monday on Fox News, Abbott essentially admitted to the partisan power play, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined “there is nothing illegal” about shaping districts to a majority party’s advantage. He even openly acknowledged it as “gerrymandering” before correcting himself to say Texas is “drawing lines.”

More than 1,800 miles away from Austin, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared with Texas Democrats and argued that their cause should be national.

“We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by bunch of law breaking cowboys,” Hochul said Monday, flanked by several of the lawmakers who left Texas. “If Republicans are willing to rewrite rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us with no choice: We must do the same. You have to fight fire with fire.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a roundtable discussion with President Donald Trump, first responders and local officials at Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville, Texas, during a tour to observe flood damage, Friday, July 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Texas Dems say they are ‘in this for the long haul’

State Reps. Armando Walle, left, and Ana Hernandez, both Democrats from Houston, speak during a news conference at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Abbott insisted ahead of Monday’s scheduled session that lawmakers have “absconded” in violation of their sworn duties to the state.

“I believe they have forfeited their seats in the state Legislature because they are not doing the job they were elected to do,” he said in the Fox News interview, invoking his state’s hallmark machismo to call the lawmakers “un-Texan.”

“Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said.

Democrats said they had no plans to heed the governor’s demands.

“He has no legal mechanism,” said Texas Rep. Jolanda Jones, one of the lawmakers who was in New York on Monday. “Subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York, so he can’t come and get us. Subpoenas in Texas don’t work in Chicago. ... He’s putting up smoke and mirrors.”

A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. As for his threat to remove the lawmakers, Abbott cited a nonbinding legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton amid an partisan quorum dispute in 2021. Paxton suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.

Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who “try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”

The Republican response is accelerated compared with the 2021 dispute, when weeks passed before the GOP majority opted for civil arrest warrants.

The state of the vote

Texas House Democrats join Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks about the Texas Republican plans to redraw the House map during a press conference at the Democratic Party of DuPage County office in Carol Stream, IL on Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Black)

The lawmakers who left declined to say how long they will hold out.

“The magic of a quorum break is you never telegraph the how long or what you’re going to do,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who has served in the Legislature since 2001. “We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul.”

Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Gene Wu said his members “will do whatever it takes” but added, “What that looks like, we don’t know.”

Legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021, when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days to protest new voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans still passed that measure.

Lawmakers cannot pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber, and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.

The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served. Republicans answered by adopting $500 daily fines for lawmakers who don’t show up for work as punishment.

The governor, meanwhile, continues to make unsubstantiated claims that some lawmakers have committed felonies by soliciting money to pay for fines they could face for leaving the state to deny a quorum.

Disaster aid and presidential politics are part of the argument

The lack of a quorum will delay votes on disaster assistance and new warning systems in the wake of last month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.

On Fox, Abbott attempted to turn that issue back on Democrats, suggesting their efforts to break a quorum would become the reason for a delayed flood response.

Beyond Texas, some Democrats want to leverage the fight.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender and outspoken Trump critic, welcomed Texas Democrats to Chicago on Sunday after having been in quiet talks with them for weeks. Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential 2028 contender, held public events about the Texas fight before the quorum break.

“This is not just rigging the system in Texas,” Pritzker said Sunday night. “It’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”

Texas Rep. James Talarico and other Democratic lawmakers board a plane at Signature Aviation at the South Terminal, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

The Texas House is scheduled to convene again Tuesday afternoon.

___

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, also contributed to this report.

----

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he will begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office Monday if they don’t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn U.S. House maps that President Donald Trump wants before the 2026 midterm elections.

The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but has drawn in Democratic governors who have floated the possibility of rushing to redraw their own state’s maps in retaliation. Their options, however, are limited.

At the center of the escalating impasse is Trump’s pursuit of adding five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas before next year that would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its slim U.S. House majority.

The new congressional maps drawn by Texas Republicans would create five new Republican-leaning seats. Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats.

A vote on the proposed maps had been set for Monday in the Texas House of Representatives, but it cannot proceed if the majority of Democratic members deny a quorum by not showing up. After one group of Democrats landed in Chicago on Sunday, they were welcomed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, but declined to say how long they were prepared to stay out of Texas.

“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader.

But legislative walkouts often only delay passage of a bill, including in 2021 when many of the same Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days in protest of new voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans still wound up passing that measure.

Four years later, Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he will seek to remove them from office if they are not back when the House reconvenes Monday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.

He also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they’d face.

“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said.

In response, House Democrats issued a four-word statement: “Come and take it.”

The state of the vote

Lawmakers can’t pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still meet as planned on Monday afternoon.

“If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . .,” he posted on X.

Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who “try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”

Fines for not showing up

A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don’t show up for work as punishment.

The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in the wake of last month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.

Illinois hosts Texas lawmakers

Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum.

Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state.

Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,” Pritzker said Sunday night.

Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states.