The first significant move in an escalating national redistricting fight is expected to occur on Wednesday as the predominantly Republican Texas legislature plans to approve a new congressional map. This map is likely to create five additional seats favorable to the GOP.
The impending vote comes after encouragement from President Donald Trump, who is eager to prevent a midterm loss that could cost his party control of the House of Representatives. This follows weeks of delays due to dozens of Texas Democratic state lawmakers fleeing the state in protest. Some Democrats returned on Monday, only to have constant police escorts assigned to them to ensure they attended Wednesday’s session. Those who refused monitoring were confined to the House floor, where they expressed their dissent via a livestream on Tuesday night.
Outraged national Democrats have promised retaliation for the Texas map, with California’s legislature set to approve new maps that would create more Democratic-leaning seats later this week. However, the map must still gain approval from voters in the state come November.
Typically, states redraw their maps every decade in line with new census data. Nonetheless, Trump is urging other conservative-led states, such as Indiana and Missouri, to similarly carve out new GOP-favored districts from their maps, as the party readies for a challenging midterm election next year.
In preparation for the vote, Texas Democrats have highlighted the extraordinary measures employed by Republican leaders to ensure the session goes forward. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier kicked things off by declining to sign what Democrats termed the “permission slip” for leaving the House chamber— a brief form allowing Department of Public Safety officers to tail them. She spent Monday night and the following day on the House floor, where she arranged a livestream, while her Democratic peers were tailed by plainclothes officers to their offices and homes.
Rep. Linda Garcia from the Dallas area recounted her journey, saying she drove three hours back home from Austin, followed by an officer. During grocery shopping, the officer trailed her down every aisle, pretending to shop, she noted. As she discussed the situation with The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were stationed outside her home.
“It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “The only way to explain the entire process is: It’s like I’m in a movie.”
The trooper assignments, ordered by Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP’s slim House majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate.
Other Democrats join the protest
House Minority Leader Gene Wu, from Houston, and state Rep. Vince Perez, of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth.
On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the House floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members.
Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez called their protest a “slumber party for democracy,” and she said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor.
“We are not criminals,” Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said.
Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements.
Republican leader says Collier ‘is well within her rights’
Burrows brushed off Collier’s protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month’s deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting, and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier.
“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Burrows said.
Under those rules, until Wednesday’s scheduled vote, the chamber’s doors are locked, and no member can leave “without the written permission of the speaker.”
To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present.
The GOP wants 5 more seats in Texas
The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the U.S. House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state’s districts to take five seats from Republicans.
Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court.
Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
How officers shadowed Democratic lawmakers
Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Houston Rep. Armando Walle said he wasn’t sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely.
Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her.
Garcia said her 9-year-old son was with her as she drove home, and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she shopped with her son.
“I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you’re potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you’re going to steal,” she said.
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Riccardi reported from Denver. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.
