By leaving Texas for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, the Democrats prevented the 150-member state House of Representatives from reaching a quorum for a scheduled vote on the new US House voting map.
By leaving Texas for Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, the Democrats prevented the 150-member state House of Representatives from reaching a quorum for a scheduled vote on the new US House voting map.
Dozens of Texas Democratic lawmakers had barely left the state to stall a vote on a redrawn congressional map when Republicans started lobbing threats of steep fines, arrests, criminal investigations and even removal from office.
But there are barriers to following through on the tough talk that’s come from Gov. Greg Abbott on down, just as the Democrats’ effort may not stop Republicans from ultimately approving the map sought by President Donald Trump to shore up his party’s 2026 midterm prospects.
Legal experts and even Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton say it would be difficult to enforce consequences against the Democratic lawmakers while they are safely camped out in sympathetic Democratic-controlled states and effectively out of reach of Texas law enforcement looking to bring them home.
Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, threw out some of the earliest calls for arrests. But even he has called enforcing the various threats “a challenge.”
“Until they show up themselves back in Texas, sometimes it’s hard to actually execute on that,” Paxton said in interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “That’s one reason they choose Democratic states. It becomes very difficult to execute those warrants when we can’t get the cooperation of other states,”
Paxton’s opponent in the 2026 GOP primary, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, on Tuesday asked the FBI to “take appropriate steps” to help Texas authorities find the lawmakers.
