Aug. 12 (UPI) — Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to remove 10 Democratic districts from Texas if California makes good on its threat to remove five Republican districts from its maps, the latest salvo in the deepening fight between the two states over the Lone Star State’s redistricting efforts.

“If California tries to gerrymander five more districts; listen, Texas has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state,” the Republican governor told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview Monday.

“We can play that game more than they can, because they have fewer Republican districts in their state.”

The threat comes as Texas state Democrats have fled their home state to Democratic strongholds such as Illinois and other states to prevent Republicans from passing controversial redistricting maps that give the GOP five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Critics have accused Abbott and Texas Republicans of conducting a power grab, seeking to redraw districts now as opposed to at the end of the decade, when it is traditionally done, in order to try to give President Donald Trump and the Republican Party an additional five seats in the House ahead of next year’s midterms.

Texas Democrats fled the state earlier this month in opposition, denying their Republican colleagues a quorum, meaning the minimum number of lawmakers necessary to pass legislation.

The GOP’s redistricting efforts in Texas have angered Democrats throughout the country, with Gov. Gavin Newsom responding that he will redraw California’s maps to produce five more Democratic seats in the House to neutralize Abbott’s move.

Texas has 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the House of Representatives. California has nine GOP legislators and 43 Democrats.