Texas House Dems Flee State to Block GOP Congressional Map

Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state Sunday in a bid to block passage of a new congressional map designed to give the GOP five additional seats in the U.S. House next year, raising the stakes in what is poised to be a national fight over redistricting ahead of next year’s midterm election, Kayla Guo, Eleanor Klibanoff, and Gabby Birenbaum reported for The Texas Tribune.

The absence of 51 or more Democrats can bring the Legislature’s ongoing special session to a halt.

The maneuver, undertaken by most of the Texas House’s 62 Democrats, deprives the Republican-controlled chamber of a quorum—the number of lawmakers needed to function under House rules—ahead of a scheduled Monday vote on the draft map.

The 150-member House can only conduct business if at least 100 members are present, meaning the absence of 51 or more Democrats can bring the Legislature’s ongoing special session to a halt.

Miffed by the action, Oren Oppenheim and Brittany Shepherd reported for ABC News that the Texas GOP called for the fleeing Democrats to be arrested.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement, in which he accused Gov. Greg Abbott of “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”

Reporting for BBC News, Nadine Yousif wrote that Democrats in other states are retaliating against the Texas plan demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In Illinois, New Mexico, and Nevada, Democrats have already gerrymandered just as eagerly as Republicans. However, the most recent Illinois map, for example, received an F grade from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project due to its extreme political bias.

In contrast, other Democratic-controlled states—such as New York, California, Colorado, and Washington—handle redistricting through nonpartisan, independent commissions rather than state legislatures.