Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced plans to begin efforts to remove Democratic lawmakers from their positions on Monday if they do not come back after leaving the state. This move comes as an attempt by the lawmakers to thwart the approval of newly redrawn U.S. House maps that former President Donald Trump supports for the 2026 midterm elections.

In an act of defiance, numerous state House Democrats relocated to states like Illinois and New York on Sunday. Governor Abbott has given them less than 24 hours to return, intensifying the conflict over congressional maps. This standoff originated in Texas but has caught the attention of Democratic governors, who are considering redrawing their states’ maps in response, though their options to do so are fairly constrained.

The core issue is Trump’s goal to secure five additional GOP-leaning congressional districts in Texas. This move is part of a strategy to strengthen the party’s grip on the narrow U.S. House majority.

The proposed Texas congressional maps, crafted by Republicans, aim to add five new Republican-favored districts. Currently, Republicans control 25 out of the 38 districts in the state.

In the Texas House of Representatives, a vote on these proposed maps was scheduled for Monday, but it cannot go forward if most Democratic representatives refuse to attend, thereby preventing a quorum. A group of Democrats that arrived in Chicago on Sunday received a warm reception from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, yet they chose not to disclose how long they intend to remain outside Texas.

“We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don’t know,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus leader.

Legislative walkouts typically only postpone a bill’s advancement. A similar situation occurred in 2021, when many Texas House Democrats left the state for 38 days to oppose new voting restrictions. Eventually, once they returned, Republicans succeeded in passing that legislation.

Four years later, Abbott is taking a far more aggressive stance and swiftly warning Democrats that he will seek to remove them from office if they are not back when the House reconvenes Monday afternoon. He cited a non-binding 2021 legal opinion issued by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, which suggested a court could determine that a legislator had forfeited their office.

He also suggested the lawmakers may have committed felonies by raising money to help pay for fines they’d face.

“This truancy ends now,” Abbott said.

In response, House Democrats issued a four-word statement: “Come and take it.”

The state of the vote

Lawmakers can’t pass bills in the 150-member Texas House without at least two-thirds of them present. Democrats hold 62 of the seats in the majority-Republican chamber and at least 51 left the state, said Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would still meet as planned on Monday afternoon.

“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. . .,” he posted on X.

Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X that Democrats who “try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.”

Fines for not showing up

A refusal by Texas lawmakers to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules. The Texas Supreme Court held in 2021 that House leaders had the authority to “physically compel the attendance” of missing members, but no Democrats were forcibly brought back to the state after warrants were served that year. Two years later, Republicans pushed through new rules that allow daily fines of $500 for lawmakers who don’t show up for work as punishment.

The quorum break will also delay votes on flood relief and new warning systems in the wake of last month’s catastrophic floods in Texas that killed at least 136 people. Democrats had called for votes on the flooding response before taking up redistricting and have criticized Republicans for not doing so.

Illinois hosts Texas lawmakers

Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender who has been one of Trump’s most outspoken critics during his second term, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state to break quorum.

Last week, the governor hosted several Texas Democrats in Illinois to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state.

Pritzker also met privately with Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder in June to begin planning for the possibility that lawmakers would depart for Illinois if they did decide to break quorum to block the map, according to a source with direct knowledge who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it’s about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come,” Pritzker said Sunday night.

Trump is looking to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency, and hopes the new Texas map will aid that effort. Trump officials have also looked at redrawing lines in other states.

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Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan in Austin contributed to this report.