Texas governor threatens arrest of Democrats absent at redistricting vote

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - AUSTIN, Texas: Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened on Monday to arrest Democratic lawmakers who are using their collective absence from the state capital to prevent the legislature from adopting a Republican-backed plan for redrawing Texas congressional districts.

The exodus of more than 50 Democrats from the Texas legislature staging a kind of temporary political exile in Democratic-led states was intended to deny Republicans in Austin the quorum necessary to vote on the redistricting plan, championed by President Donald Trump.

By redrawing district 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 warrants apply only within the state, and breaking quorum is not a crime that would allow Texas authorities to pursue extradition from other states.

On Sunday, Abbott cited an opinion by the state’s attorney general that Texas district courts may determine whether legislators have forfeited their offices “due to abandonment,” saying that would empower him to “swiftly fill vacancies.” But even if Abbott succeeded in ousting the absent Democrats, it would take time to hold new elections.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News on Monday that he expected the Texas Supreme Court to ultimately weigh in on any abandonment cases he files. “And they’re obviously a Republican court,” he added.

In another possible tactic, Abbott said any lawmaker who solicited funds to pay the $500-per-day fine that Texas House rules impose on absent legislators could violate bribery laws. He vowed to try extraditing any “potential out-of-state felons.”

‘Fighting fire with fire’

Adding to the dynamics of the standoff, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he and his state’s Democratic-led legislature were ready to “fight fire with fire” against Trump’s Texas redistricting maneuver.

He said California Democrats were preparing a rare mid-decade congressional redistricting plan of their own that he said could offset any gains Republicans might hope to achieve by redrawing Texas maps.

But Newsom said the California plan, assuming it musters the required support of two-thirds of the state legislature, would carry a “trigger” to place it on the November 2026 ballot for voter approval only if Texas moves forward with its plan.

Countering Abbott’s assertions that Texas Democrats were shirking their duties, Newsom accused Trump and the Republicans of gaming the political system.

“These folks don’t play by the rules. If they can’t win playing the game with the existing set of rules, they’ll change the rules. That’s what Donald Trump has done,” Newsom said.

Republicans hold a 219-212 majority in the US House, with four vacancies. A stronger Republican majority in the US House would enable Trump to further advance his agenda.

The special session in Texas – also called to address flood prevention and relief – was due to reconvene on Tuesday afternoon. Democrats have threatened to stay out of state until the end of the 30-day special session, which began July 21.

‘Racial gerrymandering’

Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said the current congressional districts in Texas already dilute the voting power of racial minorities in the state, and the new redistricting plan represented “turbocharged racism.”

Abbott in a Monday morning appearance on Fox News, called Wu’s accusation “bogus,” saying redistricting would create more Hispanic-majority districts. He argued it also was necessary to give Trump voters in Democrat-majority districts the ability to elect Republicans.

A White House official told Reuters that Trump supports Abbott’s threat to remove absent Democratic lawmakers and wants “whatever is necessary” done to get the new map passed.

States are required to redistrict every 10 years based on the US Census, but the current Texas map was passed just four years ago by the Republican-led legislature. Mid-cycle redistricting is usually prompted by a change of party control.

Under Texas’ current lines, Republicans control 25 out of 38 congressional seats, nearly two-thirds of the districts in a state that went for Trump last year by a 56 percent to 42 percent margin.

Texas Democratic lawmakers have previously tried the strategy of leaving the state to block a redistricting plan. Some fled in 2021 in a bid to deny Abbott the quorum needed to pass a voting restriction measure. That bill passed after three lawmakers returned, saying they had achieved their goal of bringing national attention to the issue.