Texas Democrats face Republican deadline to stop standoff or face consequences
The Texas House is set to meet as Republican legislators say that Friday is the deadline for Democratic legislators who've fled the state to return or face consequences.
House Republicans will try to vote on GOP-proposed new congressional maps that would give Republicans more seats in Congress -- potentially allowing the GOP to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.
Abbott has also requested the Texas Supreme Court to remove Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House minority leader, from office over the Democrats' defiance. The court gave Wu until 6 p.m. ET Friday to respond to the governor's case.
Wu told ABC News Thursday that he believes his caucus will hold out on Friday and once again deny the legislature a quorum, though he said they would be willing to come back to Austin if state Republicans promise to focus solely on other issues before the special session, including flood mitigation and disaster preparedness.
Democrats who have fled the state appear likely to stay away until Aug. 19, the end of the special session, meaning there will be not be enough lawmakers present for the Texas House to conduct business.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News on Friday that he is willing to take other Democrats to court if they don't return.
MORE: Texas governor orders police to find and arrest Democrats who fled over redistricting
"If they show up today, we're all happy, we can get our business done, and everybody is good. If they do not show up, we will be in an Illinois courtroom ... [trying] to get them back to the state of Texas, hold them in contempt, and if they refuse to come, hopefully put them in jail," he said.
He shrugged off concerns that the optics of arresting Democrats would give them a public opinion win.
"I think in Texas -- I don't know what it's like in other states, but I do know in Texas, people expect their representatives to go to work," Paxton said.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows targeted the wallets of the absent members in an effort to draw them back.
On Thursday, he sent a memo to all members and their staff requiring that any member who is absent from the special session to break quorum must collect their monthly check in person. Direct deposits were suspended for those skipping out until the House reaches quorum, according to memo.
Abbott has called for the Democrats' arrest, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn has called on the FBI to track down those elected officials.
The governor said in a podcast released Friday that he was willing to go further than creating more than five new seats the GOP could flip if the Democrats continued to block.
"We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we're going to be adding on the Republican side," he said during an interview on the podcast "Ruthless."
MORE: GOP's Texas map has Austin residents sharing district with rural Texans 300 miles away
In the meantime, the Texas Democrats have fled to various blue states, including Illinois and California.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to hold a news conference with those Democrats Friday afternoon, along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and California state Democrats to show their support.
"The governor and state leaders have floated a potential statewide ballot measure that would reaffirm California's commitment to national independent redistricting and allow voters to temporarily adjust the state's congressional map only if Texas or other GOP-led states manipulate theirs," Newsom's office said in a statement.
California Democrats are preparing to respond to Texas Republicans' proposed new congressional districts by possibly targeting five GOP-held districts in the Golden State, sources recently confirmed to ABC station KGO-TV. But the office of the California Secretary of State told ABC News that if legislators don't move fast, it becomes nearly impossible for the state to run a statewide election that meets federal standards.
ABC station KGO-TV's Monica Madden contributed to this report.
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