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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — 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 who are absent from their seats. Democrats counter that Abbott is using “smoke and mirrors” to assert legal authority he does not have.
The Republican-dominated House quickly issued civil arrest warrants for absent Democrats and Abbott ordered state troopers to help find and arrest them, but lawmakers physically outside Texas are beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.
“If you continue to go down this road, there will be consequences,” House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows said from the chamber floor, later telling reporters that includes fines.
Democrats’ revolt and Abbott’s threats intensified a fight over congressional maps that began in Texas but now includes Democratic governors who have pitched redrawing their district maps in retaliation — even if their options are limited. The dispute also reflects 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.
California Democrats are considering new political maps that could slash five Republican-held House seats in the liberal-leaning state while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts.
The impasse centers on Trump’s effort to get five more GOP-leaning congressional seats in Texas, at Democrats’ expense, before the midterms. That would bolster his party’s chances of preserving its 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 the 2024 presidential results: Trump won 56.1% of Texas ballots, while Democrat Kamala Harris received 42.5%.
Speaking Monday on the Fox News show “America’s Newsroom,” Abbott essentially admitted to the partisan power play, noting the U.S. Supreme Court has determined “there is nothing illegal” about shaping districts to a majority party’s advantage. He even acknowledged it as “gerrymandering” before correcting himself to say Texas is “drawing lines.”
More than 1,800 miles (2,900 km) away from Austin, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared with Texas Democrats and argued their cause is national.
“We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a 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.”
A debate over who is abusing power
Abbott insisted lawmakers have “absconded” in violation of their sworn duties.
“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 Democrats “un-Texan.”
“Texans don’t run from a fight,” he said.
Hours after Monday’s halted House session, a gaggle of Democrats — state lawmakers who left and members of Congress whose lines would be redrawn — mocked Abbott as the weak figure in this battle.
“I never thought as a Texan … that I would see the governor of the proud state of Texas bend a knee to a felon from New York,” said U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, a state legislator before voters sent her to Washington.
Legislators themselves showed no plans to heed Abbott’s demands.
“He has no legal mechanism,” said state 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.
University of Houston law professor David Froomkin cast doubt on that interpretation. He said it’s “baseless” to claim lawmakers abandoned their seats when their absence is clearly tied to current legislative debate.
Still, the Republican response is accelerated compared with the 2021 dispute, when weeks passed before the GOP majority opted for civil arrest warrants. Froomkin said Abbott could be using the mere possibility of legal wrangling over their jobs to intimidate lawmakers into returning.
Status of the vote
Legislators who left the state declined to say how long they’ll hold out.
“We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, who has served in the Legislature since 2001.
Texas House Democratic Caucus leader Gene Wu said 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 Democrats left Texas for 38 days to protest proposed voting restrictions. Once they returned, Republicans passed that measure.
Lawmakers cannot pass bills in the 150-member House without two-thirds of members present. Democrats hold 62 seats in the majority-Republican chamber, and at least 51 left the state, according to a Democratic aide.
The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders could “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.
Abbott, meanwhile, continues to make unsubstantiated claims that some lawmakers have committed felonies by soliciting money to pay for potential fines for leaving Texas during the session.
Disaster response and 2028 presidential politics
The lack of a quorum will delay votes on disaster assistance and new warning systems after last month’s catastrophic Texas floods 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 absences 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. “It’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas urged other Democratic governors to join Pritzker, Newsom and Hochul. Democrats, Veasey said, have too often “shown up to a gun fight with good intentions, no knives.” But “that era is over,” Veasey declared Monday from Illinois. “We are not going to unilaterally disarm.”
The Texas House is scheduled to convene again Tuesday afternoon.
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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, also contributed to this report.
Bill Barrow And Nadia Lathan, The Associated Press
