Texas Democrats Weigh Return to State in Redistricting Fight
While the Democrats vowed to stay out of Texas long enough to prevent a vote during a special session of the state legislature, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has pledged to call session after session to pass the redistricting proposal.
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That complicates efforts for the Democrats to stop the new maps, which could give the GOP five new Republican-leaning US House districts, strengthening their hold on Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
ABC News reported Tuesday that the lawmakers are planning to return to Austin as soon as this weekend, citing multiple unnamed sources. The Texas state House Democratic caucus said in a post on social media that they were meeting and 'still assessing their strategies going forward,' declining to comment further.
If the Democrats return, it's unclear what actions they would consider during any additional sessions.
The Texas mapping duel has erupted into a national controversy as Republicans seek to protect their narrow majority in the US House of Representatives. While states across the country usually adjust district lines every 10 years to reflect population changes, Trump has pushed state lawmakers to redraw the maps now in a way that could add as many as five Republican-leaning House seats.
Texas state House Democrats left the state in early August in a bid to stall the bill, scattering from Illinois to New York and depriving the Texas House of Representatives of the minimum number of lawmakers present to hold a vote — a tactic known as a quorum break. Absent members have racked up fines of $500 per day, a penalty established after Democrats similarly broke quorum in 2021.
Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the Republican nomination for US Senate, responded by filing lawsuits to remove some of the Democratic representatives from office, arguing they had vacated their seats.
They also targeted Democratic fundraisers including former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, who helped cover expenses for the lawmakers, alleging the support constituted bribery.
Previous Democratic quorum breaks in Texas have delayed redistricting efforts, but failed to stop Republicans from ultimately altering the maps.
National Democrats, however, have said other states could retaliate in kind. California and New York Democrats have threatened to rewrite their own maps in a way that would risk Republican seats in those states, should Texas Republicans force through new district lines. Other Republican-controlled states, including Florida, Indiana, and Missouri, are similarly eyeing redistricting to add seats where possible. California's Governor Gavin Newsom said this week that Democrats in his state would back down from redistricting if Trump told Republican leaders to halt their plans.
'You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,' Newsom wrote to the president on Monday.
The Texas state legislature was also scheduled to address other issues during the special session, including emergency response systems and property taxes.
Democrats could try to demand the legislature prioritize its response to the deadly floods that tore through Central Texas in July before taking up redistricting. While they hold little power in the Republican-dominated House, they could leave again if those demands are not met.
(Updates with Newsom warning in 12th paragraph.)
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