At least 51 Texas House Democrats left the state Sunday, one day after a bill that would dramatically redraw Texas' congressional maps, House Bill 4, passed out of committee in the GOP-led House of Representatives on a party-line vote.
The House requires 100 members be present to conduct business, and the House only includes 88 Republicans. The Democrats action, known as “breaking quorum,” effectively brings the House to a standstill and prevents any consideration of HB 4 by the full chamber.
Speaking at a press conference in a Chicago suburb Sunday evening, House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D-Houston) blasted Gov. Greg Abbott, state Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, and other Texas Republicans for pressing ahead with redistricting, while postponing any action to relieve the victims of last month’s devastating flood in Central Texas.
“Gov. Abbott has used this tragedy, taken these families who are grieving, taken these communities who are struggling to recover, and used them as hostages in a political game,” Wu said. “And what is even worse, their attempts to do this, their attempts to disenfranchise Texans, the tool they are 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. And Gov. Abbott is doing this in submission to Donald Trump.”
While many of the Democrats have fled to Chicago, others have gone to Albany and Boston — all to cities in Democrat-led states.
“We may not be at the Capitol, but we’re doing our jobs,” said state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) in a statement. “We may not be in Texas, but we’re fighting for our constituents.”
The mid-decade round of redistricting kicked off following intense pressure from President Donald Trump. The U.S. Department of Justice sent Abbott a letter identifying four Democrat-held seats representing majority non-white coalitions of voters as “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.” Trump then stated publicly he wanted Texas Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional map to pick up five seats.
“We should be in Austin right now, working to support grieving communities devastated by the July 4th floods that took more than 135 of our fellow Texans – many of them families and children. That's what Texans deserve in the wake of a horrific tragedy," said state Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) in a separate statement. "Unfortunately, Republicans, at the request of Donald Trump, have hijacked our special legislative session to launch a blatant and calculated power grab. It's unconscionable and an insult to the flooding victims, survivors, and their loved ones."
Several Republicans members, most notably state Attorney General Ken Paxton, have called for the Democrats’ arrest.
“I support the immediate arrest of these rogue lawmakers who've fled their duties,” Paxton said on X.com. “These radical Democrats are spitting in the face of every Texan they swore to represent. This is cowardice and dereliction of duty, and they should face the full force of the law without apology.”
Gov. Abbott went a step further, calling for the Democrats who had broken quorum to be expelled from their elected offices.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said in a statement. “The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”
Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) issued his own statement, also on X.com:
“The Texas House will be convening at 3:00pm tomorrow,” Burrows said. “If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table. . .”
The last time Texas Democrats broke quorum was four years ago to block the passage of election legislation during a special session. Governor Greg Abbott responded by calling another special session, and the quorum break ultimately collapsed.
The map legislation passed the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting on a party-line vote following a day of testimony in which those opposing the measure outnumbered supporters 100-to-1, a point Committee Vice Chair Jon Rosenthal (D-Houston) made.
"The people of Texas spoke,” Rosenthal said. “They came out in overwhelming numbers to these hearings. They submitted thousands and thousands of testimonials online, and we saw that 1.2% of the responses were in favor, while 98.8% were opposed. I think even conservative, true conscientious conservative Texans know this is a racist attack on Black and brown communities, and I won't stand for it. We will continue to fight this with everything we have."
State Rep. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie) condemned the approaching vote on the proposed redistricting map as a travesty, and he pledged to those who had come out to testify against the map that the fight was far from over.
"This map intentionally dismantles majority-minority congressional districts in which voters have repeatedly demonstrated the ability and power to elect the candidates of their choice," Turner said. "To take that ability and power away is straight-up, intentional racial discrimination and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."
State Rep. Christian Manuel (D-Port Arthur) described how prior rounds of redistricting had intentionally broken an opportunity congressional district in East Texas for non-white voters, and he said the communities have yet to recover from the resulting damage.
"Yesterday and the day before, we heard people who were telling you they were hurting and that they're scared,” Manuel said. “And this is the same thing that happened when Democrats didn't listen during the era of the tea party, and we paid for that. And that's not a threat. I'm wanting you to understand, just like some of you remember what that fear felt like, you thought that big government was coming in to take over everything, that is the real fear that some people have."
State Rep. Cody Vasut (R-Angleton), chair of the committee, presided over the meeting but did not make any statements in favor of the bill ahead of the vote.
State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, issued a statement following the committee vote, condemning the process.
“This vote is a profound act of contempt for the people of Texas. It is the final confirmation that to hold power, Republicans will gladly silence the voices of Black and Latino Texans who have fought for generations to be heard,” Wu said. “When a majority uses its power not to govern, but to erase the voices of its fellow citizens, it forfeits its legitimacy.”
This story has been updated to account for breaking developments.