Key events
Texas governor threatens arrest of Democrats absent at Monday redistricting vote
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Texas governor Greg Abbott has escalated the standoff over redrawing the state’s congressional districts by threatening to arrest Democratic lawmakers who are using their collective absence from the state capital to prevent the move.
More than 50 Democrats have fled from Texas, staging a kind of temporary political exile in Democratic-led states, Reuters reports. It is intended to deny Republicans in Austin the quorum necessary to vote on their redistricting plan, championed by president Donald Trump.
By redrawing lines in hopes of flipping some seats in the US House of Representatives currently held by Democrats, the Republican Party aims to protect its narrow majority in next year’s congressional midterm elections. Trump has told reporters he expects the effort to yield as many as five additional House Republicans.
During Monday’s statehouse session in Austin, the Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives issued civil warrants for the wayward Democrats – most of whom have gone to Illinois, New York or Massachusetts – to be brought back to Austin.
“To ensure compliance, 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,” Abbott said in a statement.
But the move seems largely symbolic. The warrants apply only within the state, and breaking quorum is not a crime that would allow Texas authorities to pursue extradition from other states.
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