Aug. 10 (UPI) — Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot is threatening to call a series of rolling special legislative sessions to push the Trump administration’s efforts to redraw voting district boundaries in the state, the governor said Sunday.
Abbott argued during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that he has the authority to keep the Texas Legislature in session indefinitely, which would extend penalties for Democrats who have fled Washington for liberal-leaning states in an effort to sidestep a vote on efforts by the Trump administration to redraw Texas’ congressional voting district to favor the GOP.
Democratic lawmakers from Texas fled the state to deny the legislature the quorum it needs to vote on the change to legislative districts, which they contend are being crafted to benefit Republicans and disenfranchise Democrats, many of whom are Black and Latino.
Democrats flew to Illinois and other states run by Democratic governors, where they have received backing from state officials and politicians and who have criticized the GOP for its efforts to shape the voting districts in Republicans’ favor.
Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker has been vocal in his support of the Texas Democrats, and among the most vocal opponents of President Donald Trump and the Republican party’s efforts to remake the voting districts. Abbott has called the Illinois congressional voting map a joke.
“Governor Abbot is the joke,” Pritzker said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.
Pritzker bristled at allegations that Illinois’ congressional lines have been gerrymandered, which Abbott and other members of the GOP have contended.
Pritzker offered as evidence the fact that Trump won 44% of the statewide vote in the 2024 presidential election even though Republicans hold just 3 of the state’s 17 congressional districts.
Pritzker said Illinois took public opinion into account before designing Illinois’s voting boundaries, and said they are fair.
“We held public hearings, legislative hearings,” Pritzker continued. “People attended them. They spoke out. There was a map put out. There we actually made changes to the map. And a map was passed, and it was done at the end of the census, to the decennial census. So that’s how it’s done in this country.”
Abbott pressed his point and said Texas Democrats would be arrested upon their return.
“If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,” Abbott said Sunday. “If they want to evade that arrest, they’re gonna have to stay outside the state of Texas for literally years.”
Abbott argued that Democrats are violating an article in the Texas constitution that requires them to act on measures before the legislature. He said because they are violating a constitutional mandate, “they are not fulfilling their oath of office, and they can be removed from office in this legal action that I am taking.”
Abbot has gone further, threatening to increase the redistricting margin for Republicans if Democrats fail to return to Austin.