Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that he plans to seek a court ruling declaring that state House Democrats who have broken quorum and left the state have "abandoned their offices," opening the door for Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint their replacements.
Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows has given Democratic lawmakers who broke quorum until Friday to return and present themselves to the House.
"Starting Friday," Paxton said in a statement, "any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable for vacating their office. The people of Texas elected lawmakers, not jet-setting runaways looking for headlines. If you don't show up for work, you get fired."
Gov. Abbott signaled that he and Paxton would pursue this path late Sunday, a few hours after Democrats announced the quorum break. Abbott pointed to an opinion Paxton issued after Democrats last broke quorum during a special session in 2021. That ruling held that a court would have to determine if a legislator has forfeited his or her office by abandonment.
"That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution," Abbott said in his own statement.
Getting court approval for such declarations is not automatic and is likely to be time consuming. The current special session ends August 19, but the governor can call as many special sessions as he wishes under the state constitution.
Democrats announced Sunday they were fleeing the state in response to Republicans' efforts to pass a mid-decade congressional redistricting map that would allow them to pick up five seats in the 2026 midterm election. Gov. Abbott added redistricting to the special session call following intense pressure from President Donald Trump.
This is a story in progress and will be updated.
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