BREAKING: Texas House greenlights arrest warrants for Democrats who fled state to avoid redistricting vote

Abbott warned late Sunday that he would pursue legal action to remove the lawmakers from office if they fail to return to Austin by Monday, August 4, 2025 to vote on the proposal.

Abbott on Monday also directed the Texas Rangers to investigate "fleeing Texas House Democrats for potential bribery and any other potential legal violations connected to their refusal to appear for a quorum, conduct business, and cast votes," Abbot said. "That investigation should extend to anyone who aided or abetted such potential crimes."

Abbott’s pressure follows a walkout by Democrats seeking to deny the Texas House a quorum, the minimum number of legislators required to conduct business. By leaving the state, Democrats effectively froze all legislative activity during a special session set to expire later this month. Their primary objective was to halt a GOP-drawn congressional map that could secure five additional US House seats for Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.

“This truancy ends now,” Abbott wrote in a letter sent to each absent lawmaker ahead of the deadline. He cited a 2021 opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which said courts could determine whether lawmakers forfeited their offices by fleeing the state to obstruct legislative duties. If a court rules that the seats are vacant, Abbott would be authorized to appoint replacements.

At the center of the dispute is a mid-cycle redistricting plan after President Donald Trump said that the redistricting of the lines in Texas could pick up the GOP a few extra seats in the 2026 midterms.

The Texas House redistricting committee advanced the proposal on Saturday along party lines, setting up a full House vote for Monday. According to the Texas Legislative Council, the new map would have given Trump 30 of the state’s congressional districts in 2024, three more than under the current boundaries. Five districts would have flipped from Democratic to Republican advantage.

The DOJ sent a letter weeks ago to Texas officials, arguing that the districts had to be restructured, citing racial gerrymandering. Democrats have argued it is power grab for the GOP.

“This is nothing more than a Trump-ordered assault on democracy,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder, who pledged legal action if the map is adopted. “Democrats must fight this Trump power grab through any means necessary, and blue states across the country should use this as a signal flare to start carving up their own states and make these authoritarian wannabe Republican lawmakers regret ever opening up this redistricting discussion in the first place.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paton also issued a statement in response to the Democratic members vote-skipping.

“Instead of showing up to work and doing the job they were elected to do, Democrat members have fled the state in a cowardly desertion of their responsibilities as elected officials.

“… I am prepared to do everything in my power to hold them accountable because these liberal lawmakers are not above the law,” he said.

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