On Monday, the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, requested the Department of Security to arrest the Democratic congressmen who left the state to prevent the necessary quorum in a planned vote by their Republican rivals that seeks to modify the electoral map in an initiative that would allow them to gain five additional seats in the national legislative elections of 2026.
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To carry out official activities, the presence of at least 100 out of the 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives, which is majority Republican, is required. The Democrats hold 62 of the seats and according to the spokesperson for the Democratic Caucus of the Texas House, Josh Rush Nisenson, he estimated that 51 had left the state. Some went to Chicago (Illinois) and others to New York, cities and states that are Democratic strongholds.
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Why did the political crisis in Texas unfold?
Governor Abbott’s decision, a conservative and strong ally of Donald Trump, was announced in a statement in which he pointed out that “Texas House Democrats have abandoned their duty to Texans...Failing to fulfill their duty has consequences.”
The governor believes that the departure of these congressmen is hindering the processing of “critical legislation to help flood victims and promote property tax relief.” In this way, Abbott omitted that the Democrats’ decision is related to Monday’s vote to modify the electoral map to favor Republicans.
In this situation, the House Speaker, Dustin Burrows, called for the representatives and issued court orders to compel the members to return. Consequently, the governor stated that he “directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House of Representatives any member who has abandoned their duty to the Texans."
Abbott added that “this order will remain in effect until all missing Democratic members of the House of Representatives are located and brought to the Texas Capitol.”
According to state laws, a congressman cannot be absent for unjustified reasons to attend a vote like the one that was supposed to take place on Monday. However, this is a minor civil offense, so they could be arrested but not sentenced to jail time.
According to NBC News, this is not the first time Texas Democrats have left the state to obstruct legislative functioning as a form of protest against bills they oppose. They did so in 2021 as well, and on that occasion, they also faced threats from the Republican Party.
However, this time Governor Greg Abbott has gone even further: in addition to suggesting the use of law enforcement to bring back the absent legislators, he has proposed—based on unproven and questionable legal authority—the possibility of courts declaring their seats vacant and calling for new elections to replace them.
What is the modification of the electoral map?
“Gerrymandering” is the term used in the United States for the redrawing of congressional districts that must be done every 10 years according to the census. However, in some states, if one party controls the governorship and has a majority in the state legislature, they can do it whenever they want, which is what is happening in Texas, where Republicans under the direction of Donald Trump want to redraw the electoral map in order to gain more representatives in the national legislative elections of November 2026.
Among the most common practices of gerrymandering, there are two types of strategies: one consists of concentrating voters of the opposing party (generally related to their economic income, educational level, and race) in a reduced number of districts, allowing the ruling party to secure a significant advantage in the surrounding areas, while the second tactic is to disperse these same voters among several districts, thus diluting their influence.
Faced with the Republicans’ decision to change the electoral map of Texas in their favor, Democratic-controlled states like New York are now threatening to make similar changes to balance the scales.