Aug. 4 (UPI) — Texas Democrats have fled the Lone Star State in an effort to block Republicans from advancing state House maps that not only advantage the GOP by five seats but that critics say target the voting power of people of color.
The local Democrats traveled to Illinois and other Democratic-led states to prevent a Republican quorum — meaning the minimum number of congressional members needed for a vote — from being reached to advance the controversial maps on Monday when the House reconvenes at 3 p.m. local time.
The Republicans hold a nearly 60% majority in the Texas House with 88 representatives to the Democrats’ 62.
With Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker behind him, Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu told reporters at a press conference that they were armed with the moral responsibility to leave the state.
“We’re not here to have fun. We’re not here because it is easy, and we did not make the decision to come here today lightly,” he said. “But we come here today with absolute moral clarity that this is the absolutely the right thing to do to protect the people of the state of Texas.”
The Republicans released their proposed Texas congressional map late last month that, if adopted, would add five new Republican congressional seats. The bill, House Bill 4, has since been hastily moved through the state’s Congress, with the redistricting committee passing it to the House floor on Saturday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has rebuked the GOP maps as “designed to dilute the voting power of communities of color.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Saturday warned the Democrats against breaking quorum, issuing a letter stating by not being present when the House reconvenes for the special session, they could be removed from office and face felony charges, on allegations of them accepting funds to assist in their violation of legislative duties. Abbott did not provide proof to support the allegations.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight,” he said in the letter. “But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also took to X to say that the Democrats “should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately.
“We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law,” he said.
During the Sunday press conference, Wu lambasted Abbott for using the people of Texas as hostages “in a political game” as the Republicans were seeking to pass the congressional maps before filing a promised bill to aid those suffering from last month’s flooding that killed more than 135 people.
“Instead, they spent their entire time playing dirty political games that only help themselves,” he said. “And what is even worse — their attempts to do this, their attempts to disenfranchise Texans, the tool their using is a racist, gerrymandered map, a map that seeks to use racial lines to divide hardworking communities who have spent decades building up their power and strengthening their voices.”
The Democratic National Committee has voiced support for the Texas Democrats, issuing a statement saying it was “time to fight back” against Republicans, including President Donald Trump who “have tried to get away with rigging the system, breaking the rules and scheming to hold onto power.”
“For weeks, we’ve been warning that if Republicans in Texas want a showdown — if they want to delay flood relief to cravenly protect Donald Trump from an inevitable midterm meltdown — then we’d give them that showdown,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said.
“Republicans thought they could just rig the maps and change the rules without the American people taking notice. They were dead wrong.”