Pressure mounts on Texas Democrats as walkout stretches into a second week
The fight goes far beyond Texas. President Donald Trump is pushing several other Republican-led states to draw new congressional maps to help protect Republicans' narrow House majority, which stands at 219-212 with four vacancies.
Democrats are threatening counterattacks. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sent Trump a letter Monday asking him to halt the red-state efforts and warning him he would establish new lines in his state if Trump persists.
'If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states,' Newsom wrote.
The escalating fight shows no sign of abating, with both sides dug in as Republicans try to ensure their party controls Congress for all of Trump's four-year term. Democrats see 2026 as crucial to thwarting Trump's agenda and launching investigations of the president.
The dispute could reach a crescendo this week or next. Democrats in California plan to begin adopting their plan next week by scheduling a ballot measure that will allow voters to sign off on new maps this November. To get the plan on the November ballot, California lawmakers must act by Aug. 22. Their plan could shift five congressional seats from Republicans to Democrats.
California lawmakers will be considering their plans as Texas's 30-day special legislative session winds down and Texas Democrats decide whether to return to the state after fleeing it a little over a week ago to block passage of a new map there. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he would continuously call 30-day sessions, forcing Democrats to return from blue states or commit to staying away for the long haul.
They would need to remain out of state off and on for months to prevent the plans from being passed for the 2026 elections. Texas Democrats have not said whether they have the will to do that and have sidestepped answering how long they will hold out. New lines must be set in the lead-up to the March primary.
Republicans in Texas are applying legal and financial pressure to get the Democrats to return as soon as possible. They have asked the state Supreme Court to declare that 13 of them no longer hold office because they have abandoned their jobs. They have issued civil arrest warrants for them, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is seeking court approval to make the warrants valid in California and Illinois, two of the states the absent Democrats have visited.
Paxton has also sued to prevent Democratic former congressman Beto O'Rourke's political group from funding the Texas Democrats' travel costs, and a judge on Friday issued a restraining order barring it from doing so for the time being. Top Republicans in the state House last week declared that lawmakers would need to pick up their paychecks in person, effectively preventing the Democrats from collecting a salary while they are away.
Texas state House Minority Leader Gene Wu (D) on Monday called the legal filings against the Democrats 'bizarre' and 'frivolous.'
'Any cursory look at everything they're filing, from the stuff in California to the stuff in Illinois — even the stuff in Texas — is nonsense,' he said. 'They're just treating our country and our system of government like it's a joke.'
The GOP plan in Texas, taken up at Trump's behest, would shift five districts significantly right, giving Republicans a chance to claim 30 of the state's 38 seats, up from the 25 they hold now. Trump won all 30 of the proposed districts by 10 percentage points or more. Trump is also urging Republicans in Indiana, Missouri and Ohio to draw new maps.
The Texas Constitution requires at least two-thirds of state lawmakers to be present to act on maps and other legislation, and Democrats in the state House have stymied the proposal by leaving.
The Texas State Senate will consider the new map on Monday. The Democrats in that chamber have remained in the state, so enough members should be available to pass the measure. But the map will remain stalled in the state House as long as the Democrats in that chamber remain away.
In an appearance on 'Fox News Sunday,' Abbott noted he could repeatedly call special sessions to try to get Democrats to return. 'As soon as this one is over, I'm gonna call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one,' Abbott said.
Democrats have said they will stay away long enough to kill the map for the current special session but have not said what they would do after that. The standoff could last months if Democrats remain firm.
In recent days, state troopers have visited the homes of the absent Texas lawmakers, Democrats said Monday at a news conference with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) in Chicago. Many of the Texas Democrats have been staying in the area since they left Texas last week. They planned to hold their event with Durbin last week but canceled after the Democrats faced the first of two bomb threats at a hotel they were staying in the suburbs.
'We will not be intimidated,' Texas state Rep. Mihaela Plesa (D) said. 'We will not be bullied into silence and we will not surrender, like the governor has, to corrupt D.C. politicians.'
Texas state Rep. Mitch Little (R) has called for a state House investigating committee to look into Democrats who broke quorum. Like Paxton and Abbott, he has argued Democrats may be violating an anti-bribery law by relying on O'Rourke's group and others to bankroll their travel expenses using political funds. Democrats have said they are following the law and engaged in ordinary campaign fundraising.
Little said he is confident the Democrats will eventually return, paving the way for Republicans to approve a new map.
'They will come back,' he said. 'It's just a question of when. They do not have the will to make this go away.'
He called the map essential to accomplishing the GOP's national agenda. 'This is about imperiling a Trump presidency and him having the votes to do what he needs to do,' Little said. 'We want these seats, and we're going to have them.'
Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Maeve Reston, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Mariana Alfaro and Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
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