Redistricting Texas

In an attempt to block the Republicans from aggressively redrawing Texas’ congressional map in their favour, House Democrats left the state on Sunday. The Texas Constitution requires two-thirds of state House members to be present to conduct legislative business and the Democrats’ absence denies the GOP a quorum. The proposed map the GOP put forward last week could potentially eliminate five Democratic US House seats ahead of the 2026 midterms. Such a partisan change may have significant repercussions in Washington, where House Republicans are entering a challenging midterm landscape with a razor-thin majority. “We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities”, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said.

Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to remove any lawmakers who don’t appear when the state House convenes this afternoon, equating the absence to an “abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office”.

The latest escalation in Texas could preview more bitter fights ahead as GOP states face intensifying pressure from Trump to redraw more maps to their advantage where possible. Democrats have vowed retribution in states where they control district boundaries. The Republicans of Texas has targeted Democratic seats with proposed congressional map. The map aims to flip five US House seats in the 2026 midterms in a rare mid-decade redistricting.

States typically redraw congressional district boundaries once every 10 years following the release of updated population data from the United States census. A mid-decade revision of the map would be an extraordinary move, one that Democrats contend is an open partisan effort aimed at bolstering Republicans’ prospects of retaining control of the House.

Texas Democrats played one of their few remaining cards: leaving the state to block a quorum. The Texas Constitution requires two-thirds of the state House present to conduct legislative business. With 62 Democrats in the House, the minority party can block action as long as 51 remain out of state.

“We will not be complicit in the destruction of our own communities”, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said shortly after landing in Chicago.

Dozens of Democrats joined Wu on Sunday night in Chicago, where they were greeted by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Others flew to Boston and some to Albany, New York, where they held an event Monday with Governor Kathy Hochul. A handful with family and medical issues stayed in Texas and as apprehended will not appear in Austin on Monday, Wu said. He declined to share details on how many lawmakers are in each location and where they intend to go from here.

“It is the right of legislators to deny quorum”, said Democratic State Representative Chris Turner, whose district includes Arlington, around 30 miles west of Dallas. “As Governor Abbott should know, we also have separation of powers in this country. The executive doesn’t get to remove lawmakers just because he doesn’t like how we choose to represent those who elected us”.

It remains to be seen whether the gambit will successfully block Republicans from eventually passing their map. Lawmakers are meeting under a special session that can last for only 30 days, and the current session will end August 19. But there’s little stopping Abbott from calling them back to the state Capitol as many times as it takes. It is also unclear whether Texas Democrats will remain united together. A similar eventuality in 2021 led to the Democrats being fizzled out after 38 days when a handful secretly broke ranks and returned to Texas, allowing Republicans to move ahead on a bill imposing new voting restrictions. After that unsuccessful effort, new rules were put in place to fine lawmakers $500 a day if a member is absent, including “for the purpose of impeding the action of the House”.

Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and a candidate for US Senate, said on Sunday evening that “Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law”, he continued in a post on X, though he did not specify which tools could be used.

Texas Republicans argue the redistricting is necessary over concerns that the current maps are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. Democrats have said it would suppress the votes of people of colour.

Team Maverick