Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit on Friday looking to vacate the seats of 13 Democratic state lawmakers who fled Texas in a bid to block Republicans from passing a new GOP-friendly House map.
Paxton is asking the Texas Supreme Court to declare that the 13 lawmakers have vacated their offices after roughly 50 lawmakers left the state beginning on Sunday in a bid to block the passage of new maps.
The 13 lawmakers affected include Democratic state Reps. Ron Reynolds, Vikki Goodwin, Gina Hinojosa, James Talarico, Lulu Flores, Mihaela Plesa, Suleman Lalani, Chris Turner, Ana-Maria Ramos, Jessica Gonzalez, John Bucy III, Gene Wu and Christina Morales.
“When members of the Legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the Legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices,” the lawsuit states. “The alternative would empower a minority faction to disrupt the operation of the chamber.”
In a post on X touting the new lawsuit, Paxton described the Democrats as “cowards” who had “deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) already filed a lawsuit earlier this week looking to have Wu removed from his seat.
Several of the impacted Democrats denounced the new lawsuit in separate statements.
“Texas Republicans have never been more desperate. First they put warrants out for our arrest, then they told their supporters to ‘hunt us down,’ and now they’re trying to remove me from elected office,” Bucy said in a statement reacting to the lawsuit.
“This is what it looks like when a President, a Governor, and an entire political party work together to cheat in an attempt to steal an election,” he added. “They are doing everything they possibly can to cling to power and subvert the will of millions of Americans.”
Talarico taunted Paxton in a statement on X, saying “come and take it.”
“Ken Paxton just filed a lawsuit to remove me from office,” he wrote. “But this seat doesn’t belong to him or me it belongs to the people.”
Republicans are putting pressure on Democrats to come back as the GOP looks to wrap up its special session. Republicans are looking to pass a new House map that would give their party five more pickup opportunities next year in addition to other priorities like flood recovery.
Democrats are remaining out of the state for the time being over the new House map Republicans are pursuing. In response, Republicans have called for Democrats to be arrested and are requiring them to pick up their paychecks in-person rather than by direct deposit, another way to lure Democrats back.
