Texas Democrats flee to Illinois in bid to stop GOP maps from advancing
The Texas Democrats said they were denying Republicans a quorum, or the minimum number of lawmakers needed present in order to conduct legislative business, following a similar tactic they employed the last time the GOP pursued mid-cycle redistricting in 2003.
'Governor Abbott has turned the victims of a tragedy into political hostages in his submission to Donald Trump,' Texas House Democrats said in a statement posted on X. 'We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander. As of today, this corrupt special session is over.'
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) is set to hold a press conference with the Texas Democrats later on Sunday.
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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
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Texas Governor Orders Arrest of Democrats Who Left State to Block Redistricting Vote
(Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial vote on new congressional maps. PATH Train Service Resumes After Fire at Jersey City Station Chicago Curbs Hiring, Travel to Tackle $1 Billion Budget Hole Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind Mayor Asked to Explain $1.4 Billion of Wasted Johannesburg Funds 'Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans,' Abbott said in a statement Monday. 'I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.' The governor's move followed a vote by the remaining lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives to authorize arrest warrants, which don't carry any criminal charges and can't be enforced across state lines. Republican lawmakers proposed a redistricting plan last week that Democrats describe as a gerrymander designed to give more seats in the US Congress to the GOP. The unusually timed revamp of Texas' congressional districts mushroomed into a national spectacle over the weekend with the Democrats' departure. President Donald Trump has pushed the revamp as a way to bolster Republican power in the 2026 midterm elections. In response, Democratic governors such as California's Gavin Newsom and New York's Kathy Hochul have discussed retaliating with new maps of their own. 'This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,' Gene Wu, the Democratic leader in the Texas House, said at a news conference in Illinois after leaving the state. 'We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent.' By exiting the state, Democrats left the Texas House short of the minimum number of lawmakers required to hold votes. They will be fined $500 a day due to a rule adopted in 2021 after the caucus broke quorum over voting legislation. That year, Republicans issued arrest warrants for absent members in a bid to compel them to return from Washington. While some Democrats fought the warrants in court and secured temporary orders blocking their arrest, those orders were ultimately overturned by the Texas Supreme Court. This year, there are two weeks left in a special session of the state legislature. Lawmakers were also set to address issues including last month's deadly floods in central Texas. 'Leaving the state does not stop this House from doing its work. It only delays it,' said House Speaker Dustin Burrows. Earlier, Abbott cited the Texas attorney general's view that a district court may decide if the legislators' departure amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected office, a ruling that the governor said would empower him to 'swiftly' remove them from office. He added that the Democratic lawmakers may have committed felonies with the move. He said he directed state authorities to investigate them for potential violations including bribery. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the Republican nomination for US Senate, said he supported the speedy arrest of 'jet-setting runaways' who left the state during the legislative session. 'This is cowardice and dereliction of duty, and they should face the full force of the law without apology,' Paxton said in a tweet. Democrats fired back at Abbott by casting doubt on whether he could legally remove them from office or have them charged with felonies. Many have gone to the Chicago area, with others journeying to Boston and Albany, New York. 'There is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says,' Jolanda Jones, a Texas state representative and Democrat, said Monday at a news conference in Albany with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. 'He's trying to get sound bites and he has no legal mechanism.' Hochul called the Texas redistricting effort a 'blatant power grab.' 'We are at war and that's why the gloves are off,' she said. She called for disbanding New York's bipartisan redistricting committee, which draws the state's congressional map every ten years. But lawmakers would have to amend the state constitution to redistrict out of schedule, Hochul said, making it impossible to establish new maps by the 2026 midterm elections. The US Justice Department sent a letter to Texas officials in July arguing that four of the state's congressional districts were racially gerrymandered. All four seats cited were won by Democrats last year. Trump then called on Texas Republicans to push through redistricting to help defend the party's slim majority in the US House in next year's midterm elections. Republicans currently control 25 of the state's 38 seats in the US House, or about 66%. Trump won 56% of the votes in Texas in last year's presidential election. The state typically revamps its congressional maps every 10 years based on new census information. It most recently redistricted in 2021 after a data delay caused by the pandemic. Those maps were already considered favorable toward Republicans and spurred lawsuits. Chris Turner, one of the Democratic lawmakers who left Texas, said the exodus would draw attention to the redistricting and show what's at stake. 'We cannot do this in perpetuity and no one is suggesting that we would,' Turner said on Bloomberg Television. 'I expect ultimately this fight is going to be decided in the courts.' Standing Ovation More than two decades ago, Democrats fled to neighboring states in a bid to foil a redistricting effort. The move was unsuccessful. This time, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the US House, told MSNBC that his party will 'respond from coast to coast and at all points in between to this effort to steal the midterm elections.' Many of the Texas Democrats are sheltering in hotels near Chicago, said Reid McCollum, the party chair in DuPage County in Illinois. 'They are welcome in the western suburbs as long as they need to be here,' he said. 'We will hide them in our basements.' A handful of the Texas lawmakers were in Boston this week for a national conference of state legislators. Fellow Democrats from across the country gave them a standing ovation at a luncheon Monday that also featured remarks from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Two Texas representatives from the Houston area, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez, said they planned to join their colleagues in Chicago once they leave the conference. They said they intended to stay out of Texas at least until the special session ends August 19. Both said they rushed to arrange pickups and drop-offs for their kids to attend school and sports practices while they're out of state. Hernandez said she ran out to a store in Boston to buy new clothing. Asked about the threat of arrest, Walle said, 'come and take it' — a defiant phrase from a commonly used flag in Texas that features a cannon and has its roots in the state's successful rebellion against Mexico in the 1830s. 'Our constituents expect us to fight,' he said. 'They don't expect us to lie down. I'm not worried about any legal or political ramifications because the people have elected us to do what we're doing today.' --With assistance from Greg Ryan, Isis Almeida and Miranda Davis. 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Trump Administration Posts Guidance on Tariff Rollout
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's expanded reciprocal tariffs will not apply to any products loaded onto a vessel for transport into the US before 12:01 a.m. New York time on Thursday, according to guidance issued by US Customs and Border Protection. PATH Train Service Resumes After Fire at Jersey City Station Chicago Curbs Hiring, Travel to Tackle $1 Billion Budget Hole Seeking Relief From Heat and Smog, Cities Follow the Wind Mayor Asked to Explain $1.4 Billion of Wasted Johannesburg Funds The notice, posted by the federal government on Monday, outlines implementation of the tariffs Trump announced last week, which are expected to ratchet up levies on dozens of trading partners. Expected exemptions for products under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement negotiated by the president during his first term are included in the document, as are exemptions for relief items like food, clothing and medicine set to be distributed as aid. So is the president's threatened penalty of a 40% tariff on goods deemed by the federal government to be transshipped to avoid country-specific duties. Taken together, the average US tariff rate will rise to 15.2% if rates are implemented as announced, according to Bloomberg Economics. That's up from 13.3% earlier and significantly higher than the 2.3% in 2024 before Trump took office. Trump's country-based tariffs have been billed as the centerpiece of his plan to shrink trade deficits and pressure companies to shift manufacturing jobs and investment to the US. Trump previously delayed his so-called reciprocal tariffs, first announced in April, to allow time for negotiations as nations sought to obtain better trade terms. Some countries, including Switzerland and India, are still attempting to negotiate deals to lower their duties ahead of Thursday's deadline. Trump is expected to unveil separate tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals and other key industrial products in the coming weeks, meaning ongoing uncertainty for companies and investors. And on Monday, he also threatened to impose 'substantially' higher levies on Indian exports to the US over New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil. While his tariffs are already bringing in billions in revenue for the US government, the longterm economic impacts remain unclear, with critics saying they will raise costs for US consumers and businesses and exacerbate inflation. (Updates with additional details, background throughout) AI Flight Pricing Can Push Travelers to the Limit of Their Ability to Pay Government Steps Up Campaign Against Business School Diversity What Happens to AI Startups When Their Founders Jump Ship for Big Tech How Podcast-Obsessed Tech Investors Made a New Media Industry Everyone Loves to Hate Wind Power. Scotland Found a Way to Make It Pay Off ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Politico
7 minutes ago
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Texas Democrats dig in as Abbott promises fines, extradition and arrests
A White House official told POLITICO Trump's team is taking 'a pretty hands-off approach' to the brewing battle, deferring to Texas Republicans. 'We made our case and now we're counting on them to get it done,' added the person, who was granted anonymity to freely discuss a matter being privately negotiated. State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, chair of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus, captured her group's predicament in an interview. 'We really do not have a choice,' she said. 'What is our alternative? Rolling down and rolling over for Trump's economy to continue to destroy America?' The risks are big for Texas Democrats — from $500-a-day fines, to extradition, to the more unlikely scenario of Abbott replacing them with hand-picked legislators, to facing civil arrest for violating the Legislature's rules. They do not, however, face any civil or criminal charges and can only be forced back into the Capitol to take votes. It's unclear who would foot the bill for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines members are collectively racking up by abstaining from the legislative session. There are also political risks. Texas Democrats are not just missing votes related to redistricting, but also on legislation that would provide relief following last month's devastating floods. 'No one is fooling around this time in Texas,' said Dave Carney, an adviser to Abbott. 'In the past, it was like, they came back. Everything was forgiven. It was like kumbaya. That's not happening. There's no appetite to say, 'Okay, never mind. We're going to let you do this anytime you fucking want.' Abbott also threatened to arrest Texas Democrats in 2021 when they used the same walkout tactics. If Abbott chooses to call multiple special sessions to pass the redrawn map that would net five GOP-friendly seats, lawmakers could run into time constraints: New lines must be adopted by early December in order to take effect for the 2026 midterm cycle. The Legislature could collide with filing deadlines for the midterms. Under state law, candidates can declare their intent to seek office from Nov. 8 through Dec. 8, but the state legislature has the authority to extend the deadline. Each side lacks good options to resolve the stalemate. Earlier in the day, appearing on the MAGA influencer Benny Johnson's show, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton acknowledged the struggles ahead for Abbott and his fellow Republicans, saying his 'first move would have been to chain them to their desk and not let them out of the door,' before adding, 'I think the governor is going to be forced into calling several special sessions.'
