Texas House Democrats have fled the state to block Republicans from redrawing congressional districts in a bid to flip five U.S. House seats held by Democrats. Their departure deprives the Texas Legislature’s lower chamber from the number of members needed to pass legislation and leaves the current special legislative session in limbo.
Republicans introduced a new congressional map last week, which passed through a committee early Saturday. Democrats left before the redistricting bill could receive a full floor vote.
Texas Democrats are in Illinois, Massachusetts and New York to discuss their options with governors and legislators sympathetic to their case. In Austin, House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has said that “all options are on the table” to compel Democrats to return or punish them for their absence. The Texas House is scheduled to convene at 3 p.m. Monday.
Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, has threatened to remove the fleeing Democrats from office and suggested that fundraising to pay for the daily fines they are incurring for their absence is a criminal offense.
Dems who remain earn an audience with the speaker
This article was adapted from our premium politics newsletter, The Blast, which delivers exclusive reporting, nonpartisan analysis and the first word on political moves across the state. Subscribe today.
At least six Texas House Democrats are in Austin, as sergeants fan out to bring truant members back to the Capitol.
Speaker Pro Tempore Joe Moody, D-El Paso, checked in at the quorum call. So did Democratic Reps. Terry Canales of Edinburg, Oscar Longoria of Mission, Armando Martinez of Weslaco and Richard Raymond of Laredo. Sergio Muñoz of Mission failed to register present but was on the floor. Multiple members say Bobby Guerra of Mission was also in the Capitol.
Canales and at least two other Democrats have met with Speaker Dustin Burrows “to talk about what sort of changes we could institute to the maps,” Canales told The Blast. During his press conference later, Burrows declined to comment on his conversations with Democrats, and the speaker’s office did not confirm Canales’ claim.
“There’s different ways to fight, and one of them is to show up and try to negotiate,” Canales said.
Canales told The Blast he can’t leave because he has five children and, as a practicing attorney, he has court obligations.
“I applaud what my colleagues are doing and I stand with them, but leaving is not an option for me,” Canales said.
He added that the outcome is inevitable, that the quorum break will eventually end, and that it’s important for some members to remain to keep a dialogue with the speaker.
For what it’s worth, Canales predicted that the House won’t have a quorum tomorrow.
Texas lawmakers seek support of Democratic governors
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, on Monday called on Democratic governors from New Jersey, Maryland, Washington and Oregon to lend their support to Texas Democrats in their fight against a new congressional map designed to give the GOP five new congressional seats next year.
“We are going to match Donald Trump’s energy when it comes to redistricting,” Veasey said at a news conference in Illinois on the first full day of the Democrats’ walkout from Austin, a move meant to bring the Texas House to a standstill and delay adoption of the map. “We are not going to unilaterally disarm, and that’s what’s different this time around.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York have already indicated their interest in taking up mid-decade redistricting in their states as retaliation for Texas’ plan, which was demanded by Trump ahead of a potentially difficult midterm election for Republicans next year.
Texas Democrats at Monday’s news conference reiterated their determination to fight the effort, adding that they were representing their constituents by walking out on the ongoing special session. Republicans have blasted Democrats for leaving Texas, suggesting that they are abdicating their duties as elected officials.
“We’re not running away — we’re running into the fight,” state Rep. John Bucy of Austin said. “This isn’t political theater. It’s survival, because if we lose the power to choose our leaders, we lose everything.”
Anti-redistricting protesters target Governor’s Mansion
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, speaks to protestors at a rally outside the Governor’s Mansion in Austin on Aug. 4, 2025. Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune
More than 100 people picketed in front of the governor’s mansion Monday night in protest of what some demonstrators described as the latest escalation from Republican state leaders to silence members of the state’s minority party and the people they represent.
Led by U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, the crowd marched in circles in a parking lot in front of Gov. Greg Abbott’s home chanting and waving signs with messages like: “Fight The Trump Takeover,” “Put Texans First,” and “Hey Greg Come and Take It.”
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, also joined the demonstration.
Susan Nayak, a 56-year-old Austinite, helped hold up a banner at the foot of the steps leading to the governor’s mansion, whose gates had been shut.
“He’s taking away the voice of the people,” Nayak said. “I would like them to withdraw this illegal redistricting and not go after the Democrats for trying to call attention to their illegal activities.”
Across the way stood Cliff Kaplan with an alfaia drum, concerned about what he said was an escalating division in the state’s politics. He banged the drum, ringing a hollow sound, as the crowd marched in front of him.
“The state of Texas in this case appears to be putting the president’s interests ahead of Texas’,” Kaplan, of Austin, said.
Lawmakers have a long list of unfinished business
The Texas House of Representative chamber on Aug. 4, 2025. Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune
Redistricting was not the only matter facing Texas lawmakers before House Democrats left the state Sunday. Gov. Greg Abbott, in calling lawmakers back to Austin this summer, gave them a lengthy to-do list. Most is unresolved.
Most notable is the state’s response to the July 4 Hill Country floods. Also on the agenda is:
-
Cracking down on abortion pills
-
Eliminating the STAAR test
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to questions about whether he plans to call additional special sessions later this year if Democrats run out the clock on the current session, scheduled to end on Aug. 19. The governor is authorized to call as many special sessions as he wants. And he has called several in the past. In 2023, he called four.
Continue reading here.
Burrows, Abbott vow to track down Democrats
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows speaks at a news conference Monday after the chamber failed to reach a quorum to do business. Most Democrats in the chamber left the state to block Republicans from approving a map that would redraw the state’s congressional boundaries. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
Texas Republican leaders on Monday vowed to track down and arrest more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block the GOP from redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries.
Shortly after 3 p.m., state House members voted to give House Speaker Dustin Burrows the power to issue civil warrants for each of the legislators, which in turn empowers the chamber’s sergeant-at-arms and state troopers to arrest and bring them to the Capitol.
The Democrats will not face civil or criminal charges from the arrests. And the warrants apply on in Texas, making them mostly symbolic. Most Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.
Democrats left the state Sunday afternoon to deny the House a quorum — the number of people necessary for the chamber to advance legislation — and delay passage of a new congressional map. A vote by the entire chamber was expected today.
The House used the same tactic to try to force Democrats back to work in 2021, when a majority of them left for Washington, D.C., to protest GOP voting restrictions. Some of the lawmakers challenged the warrants in court, obtaining an injunction against arrests that was later struck down by the Texas Supreme Court.
Gov. Greg Abbott reaffirmed his commitment to bring the Democrats back. saying in a statement he had mobilized the Texas Department of Public Safety to assist in the effort to bring the missing members back to the chamber.
Continue reading the story here.
New York governor pledges redistricting retribution
Appearing alongside five Texas House Democrats in Albany, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she and Democratic state legislators there are exploring ways to quickly pursue mid-decade redistricting.
Hochul slammed the Texas redistricting effort as a racist attempt to disenfranchise voters of color and hold onto congressional power. Calling out Abbott and Republican President Donald Trump, who pushed for the mid-decade redistricting, she said redrawing districts now is “legal insurrection” — meaning Republicans are using the legal process — meant to “drag us towards authoritarianism.”
New York has an independent redistricting commission which would be legislatively complicated to undo. But Hochul said the Texas threat is dangerous enough to warrant abandoning the principle of independent map-drawing. New York, she said, should not have to abide by rules that Republican states do not have.
“I cannot ignore that the playing field has changed overnight,” she said. “Shame on us if we ignore that fact and cling tight to the vestiges of the past. That era is over. Donald Trump eliminated that forever.”
To do so, New York Democrats are exploring a constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to redraw congressional maps if another state pursues it first. It would need to pass through the Legislature twice and then be approved by voters in a ballot referendum, meaning new maps could not be used until the 2028 election cycle — a full cycle later than Texas, if the Texas Legislature is able to pass its redistricting bill. That would coincide with the next presidential election.
Hochul also said that the Texas House Democrats in Albany plan to leave New York this afternoon, though they did not say what their next destination will be.
At the press conference, Texas Democrats panned the notion that Abbott or any other Texas Republican could compel them to return or arrest them for leaving.
State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, said denying a quorum is not a felony.
“Respectfully, he’s making up some shit,” Jones said. “ He’s trying to get soundbites, and he has no legal mechanism. And if he did, subpoenas from Texas don’t work in New York.”
Republican map could take five U.S. House seats from Democrats
The Texas House’s redistricting committee approved a proposed congressional map Saturday that could flip five U.S. House seats currently held by Democrats. The proposed new district boundaries target Democratic members in the Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas.
The 12-6 vote to send the proposal to the full Texas House fell along party lines and came after the committee heard from Texans who are largely opposed to the plan. That vote happened after Republicans acknowledged they are redrawing the congressional map to advantage Republican candidates, setting aside a legal justification offered by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Different from everyone else, I’m telling you, I’m not beating around the bush,” said state Rep. Todd Hunter, the Corpus Christi Republican carrying the bill. “We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance.”
Currently, Republicans hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats. Trump carried 27 of those districts in 2024, including those won by Democratic U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen.
— Eleanor Klibanoff, Kayla Guo and Gabby Birenbaum
Abbott threatens Texas House Democrats with removal from office
A private plane headed to Chicago sits on the tarmac after loading luggage at Signature Aviation in Austin with Texas Democratic legislators headed to Illinois August 3, 2025. Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
Gov. Greg Abbott has warned Texas House Democrats that he would initiate removal proceedings if they do not return to Austin to pass the GOP’s proposed new congressional maps.
The Republican governor’s Sunday threat came after more than 50 Democrats left the state Sunday afternoon so the Texas House would not have the necessary number of members present to pass legislation.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in a letter sent to each of the departed members, telling them to return to the Texas Capitol by 3 p.m. Monday.
In threatening to remove the elected officials from office, Abbott cited a nonbinding 2021 legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said it would be up to a court to decide whether a lawmaker who had left the state to deny quorum had forfeited their office.
— Eleanor Klibanoff
