Redistricting clash escalates in Texas after Democrats scatter

NBC News

4 days ago

The Texas state House is reconvening Monday afternoon amid a nationally watched clash over the GOP majority's plan to redraw the state's congressional lines, with dozens of Democrats fleeing the state to deprive Republicans of the ability to proceed with the plan.
The bulk of the 50-plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, where they've been welcomed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for a change to state law to allow redistricting in response in future years. Back in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to boot them from office or send law enforcement to force them to return to the state.
While the Texas state House plans to consider the GOP plan Monday afternoon, it cannot do so without a quorum — the presence of two-thirds of all state representatives. The rule means that 51 of the state's 62 Democratic House members can, by remaining out of state, prevent the Republican-led state House from moving forward with the legislation.
Once the House gavels in and officially discovers it lacks that quorum to proceed, Texas Republican leaders will have to decide what to do next, as they have during various 'quorum breaks' for more than 150 years.
This time, Abbott has raised the prospect of not only sending law enforcement after the Democrats but, asserting untested and tenuous legal authority, pushing courts to declare their seats vacant and call for new elections to fill them. Abbott has also suggested that Democrats fundraising to support their quorum break may be committing felony bribery. (The legislature enacted a $500-a-day punishment for breaking quorum after a similar Democratic effort in 2021)
'I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,' Abbott said in a statement Sunday.
When asked whether Trump would call upon federal agents to arrest the Texas lawmakers who have left state jurisdiction, an administration official told NBC News: 'Abbott can handle his own state.'
The clash stems from Abbott's decision to call a special session of the legislature this summer to address, among other topics, redistricting. President Donald Trump has pushed for a rare mid-decade redistricting, which the president has said would allow Republicans to pick up five more seats and pad their slim majority in the U.S. House ahead of next year's national elections, when Democrats will try to flip the chamber.
The proposed map released by a Republican state lawmaker last week opened a path toward a 5-seat GOP gain, shifting boundaries around major cities and in South Texas to create 30 districts that Trump carried by double-digit margins during last fall's presidential election. Texas Republicans currently control 25 of the state's 38 congressional seats.
Democrats have decried the move as a power play and criticized Republicans for moving on the redistricting bill before responding legislatively to the devastating floods earlier this summer that killed more than 100 people in Kerr County, outside of San Antonio.
Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, speaking Sunday evening after arriving at a press conference at a strip mall about 30 miles west of Chicago, said the redistricting bill is only happening because Trump is 'afraid of the electorate next November.'
'Nobody wants this mid-redistrict draw. Nobody is asking for this. There is one human that wants this, and that is Donald Trump,' Johnson added. 'And Abbott has turned over the state of Texas to try to serve his purpose. This does no good for the people of Texas. In fact, it takes away the voice of millions of Texas.'
But while many Republicans acknowledge the politics of the situation, they point to their party's significant majority in the legislature and control of Texas' statewide offices as justification. Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut told NBC News over the weekend that he evaluated the map by asking himself the question: 'Does this improve the political performance of Republicans in Texas?'
'When we've seen all of these blue states overperform with their maps and Texas is underperforming, that puts Republicans at a distinct disadvantage nationwide,' added Vasut, who chairs the state House redistricting committee.
What happens next?
The full scope of the Democrats' plans aren't clear. Texas' special legislative session cannot last more than 30 days, but Abbott could continue to call new ones indefinitely.
While Pritzker has asked his staff to give the runaway Democrats logistical support, and the high-profile nature of the fight could help them raise funds to extend their trip, eventually one side has to cave.
'Democrats are looking to this as a messaging opportunity more than as a political or legal or legislative strategy. The options they have are pretty limited, so they best they can hope for is to use this as a spotlight moment to shine a light on some of the issues that they have with the Republicans in Texas and Donald Trump,' said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat representing Austin who helped to organize a similar Democratic walkout in 2021 in response to election legislation, told NBC News last week that the effort four years prior was 'wildly successful' because it led to Republicans removing parts of the legislation — though the bills eventually became law.
'We could have never anticipated that the amount of publicity we brought onto Republicans would have shamed them into taking out those most egregious parts — so here's what I know: I know we'll fight with everything we've got. This is situational. We'll take it day by day, see what our best play is,' she said.
Meanwhile, a group of state Senate Democrats, who were in Boston for the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual summit, told NBC News that while they'd remain in Boston through Wednesday, their future plans aren't yet determined.
State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat who represents an Austin-area district, was realistic about what the lawmakers' decision to flee could achieve, saying the 'delay' can help Democrats 'see what other opportunities we have to stop it.'
'I don't know how long we can do this, but you know, we don't win every battle,' Eckhardt said. 'We don't know how this comes out, but to not fight this is simply not an option.'