Democratic state legislators fled Texas on Sunday in an attempt to deny a quorum to Republicans hoping to vote on a new congressional map that heavily favors the GOP even more than current districts.
Republicans unveiled the new maps earlier this week as part of a mid-decade redistricting in an attempt to protect the GOP’s razor-thin U.S. House majority. President Trump said in July that he believes Republicans could win five more seats in Texas with different districts.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott included redistricting to be addressed in a special legislative session, along with other high-profile topics like approving disaster relief for the deadly Texas floods and a THC ban.
Both houses of the Texas legislature are controlled by Republicans, but if most Democratic lawmakers leave the state, they could deny the state House and Senate the two-thirds quorum that they need to vote on the new congressional maps.
At least 51 Texas Democrats have fled the state for Chicago. Politico was first to report the lawmakers had left the state.
Eric Gay / AP 
Republicans in Texas currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. The party hopes the new maps could bring that number up to 30, and all of those new 30 seats were won by Mr. Trump in November by at least 10 points.
The five seats come from redrawing Rio Grande Valley districts — where Mr. Trump has made gains in what were once Democratic strongholds — and combining Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Cesar’s districts in Austin. In North Texas, Rep. Julie Johnson’s suburban 32nd District would be reshaped to stretch from the Dallas area to rural Republican strongholds, and Rep. Marc Veasey would be moved out of Tarrant County entirely, which would leave only a small portion of the county represented by a Democrat. All four Houston-area seats were redrawn, with Rep. Al Green’s being the most dramatic.
Democrats have fought back against the new districts, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries traveling to Austin on Thursday to pledge national support.
This is not the first time Democrats have left the state to deny Republicans a quorum — and not the first time they have done it to protest redistricting. During the landmark 2005 mid-decade redistricting, Texas Democrats fled during two separate special sessions to stop the redistricting. But the redistricting eventually did go through. And in 2023, Republicans passed legislation that levies a $500-a-day fine on lawmakers who leave the state.
The last significant quorum break in the Texas House was in 2021, when Democrats fled the state to prevent a restrictive voting bill from passing.
Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to assist police in “hunting down and compelling the attendance” of any Democratic lawmakers who leave the state to block votes during the special session.
“If Democrats ignore their duty to their constituents by breaking quorum, they should be found and arrested no matter where they go,” said Paxton, who is also running for the GOP nomination in next year’s Senate race.