Texas GOP governor sues to remove Democratic leader amid election map fight

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s high court Tuesday to remove a top Democratic lawmaker from office, arguing he had abandoned his job by leading dozens of his colleagues out of the state to block a GOP plan to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The move sharply escalated a standoff that has mushroomed into a national political battle over congressional districts, with red and blue states threatening to redraw their maps to benefit their side in elections that will determine control of the U.S. House.

“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences,” Abbott said in a statement.

Abbott filed his lawsuit as other top Republicans raised the prospect of legal challenges and intensifying law enforcement actions against Democrats. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened to go to court within days to remove Democrats from office because they “have abandoned their offices by fleeing Texas.”

President Donald Trump claimed Republicans are “entitled” to redraw Texas’ maps to give themselves five more safe U.S. House seats. They now hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional districts. Trump also said that the FBI “may have to” get involved in tracking down the Texas legislators who have left the state.

The governor’s filing asks the state Supreme Court to declare state House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu has given up his post and allow Abbott to call a special election to replace him. Wu did not have an immediate comment.

Legal scholars have questioned whether courts would go along with an attempt to eject the Democrats from office, in part because Democrats can argue they are continuing to perform legislative duties like responding to constituents.

Samuel Issacharoff, a law professor at New York University, said Abbott’s use of an obscure proceeding known as a writ of quo warranto “is not only illegitimate, but wholly antagonistic to the idea that this is a common democratic enterprise that we are administering.”

Such proceedings are used to claim officeholders are derelict in their duties. “This has not been used with any regularity in the United States since the post-Civil War period, to remove prior Confederate officers from being elected to Congress,” Issacharoff said.

At a news conference in suburban Chicago held before Abbott filed his lawsuit, Democrats said they were prepared to fight.

“This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to a knife fight. This is a new Democratic Party,” said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, echoing other party leaders who are eager to show a frustrated liberal base that they are taking action. “We’re bringing a knife to a knife fight, and we are going to fight fire with fire.”

Trump, in a Tuesday morning interview with CNBC, complained that Democratic-led states are also gerrymandered and said that Texas Republicans deserve to redraw their House seats – a move that could help the GOP retain its narrow control of Congress in 2026.

“I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats,” Trump said.

The Texas House convened for about five minutes Tuesday afternoon for a second consecutive day with eight Democratic members present and dozens of others absent, vowing to run out the clock on Republicans’ efforts to change the maps in a special legislative session. Democrats are stalling the GOP plan by preventing the 150-member state House from achieving the two-thirds quorum it needs to conduct business.

Republican Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows criticized Democrats for leaving as lawmakers are also discussing their response to last month’s catastrophic flooding and said state police briefed him on their efforts to bring the Democrats back. On the floor, House members took photos of a lighted roll-call board showing names of those missing.

Democrats can delay the redrawing but appear unlikely to stop it because Abbott can keep calling more special sessions. Texas Democrats’ previous efforts to block legislation by leaving the state have drawn attention to their causes but failed to halt legislation, because they eventually returned. They tried the same tactic in 2003 over a redistricting plan and in 2021 over voting legislation.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also put pressure on Democrats on Tuesday, writing to Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, to request that the agency “take any appropriate steps” to help Texas authorities arrest the Democratic lawmakers who left.

“Specifically, I am concerned that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses,” Cornyn wrote. The FBI declined to comment on the letter.

Texas Democratic lawmakers defended their ability to raise funds from those who support their cause. Wu said that he and his colleagues weren’t violating any laws and told reporters Tuesday that his and his colleagues’ phones are “blowing up nonstop” with messages from constituents looking to help.

“The American people are supporting us,” he said.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker , a billionaire businessman who welcomed many of the Texans to his state this week, said he is not funding the Texas Democrats, though he is “not reticent to do that.”

Rep. Vikki Goodwin, a Democrat who left the state, said she packed enough clothes to be away for two weeks. Her children are grown, and her husband is supportive, she said.

“We’ve expressed to the world that this is such an important issue, we’re willing to take this risk,” she said. “Most of our families really understand what’s at stake.”

It’s unclear what effect Republican efforts to compel the Democrats to return will have. Civil arrest warrants that GOP lawmakers voted to issue against the Democrats cannot be enforced beyond the jurisdiction of Texas authorities.

Democrats in other states are trying to counter the Texas GOP map, too. The governors of California, Illinois and New York have said they are exploring their options.

Trump showed no signs of second thoughts when asked whether redrawing Texas’ map was worthwhile if it provoked California to do the same. “Yeah, they’ll do it anyway,” he told reporters at a White House event. “If we stop over there, they would have done it anyway.”

Abbott described their proposals as “crazy bluster” in a televised interview.

“Democrats are freaking out because they are realizing Texas has the authority to redistrict, and we’re going to do so in a way that’s going to lead to these additional seats that will vote Republican,” Abbott said during an appearance Monday night on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

Earlier Monday, he said in a statement that he was ordering the Texas Rangers to “immediately investigate fleeing Texas House Democrats for potential bribery and any other potential legal violations connected to their refusal to appear for a quorum.”

Democrats could each be fined $500 a day for leaving their posts. Abbott and Cornyn contended that Democrats would violate a bribery law if they raised money to pay those fines. Wu has said Democrats are using legal ways to defray their costs while they are away but did not provide details of what they are doing.

Democrats said the moves by Abbott and GOP lawmakers were bluster and emphasized their commitment to staying away for two weeks, until the 30-day special session is slated to end. Fines and threats of arrest won’t deter them, they said.

“Do you really think we would be willing to sit there and stay quiet while you stole the voice of our voters? You didn’t know us,” Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson said.

Democrats have not said whether they have the means to repeatedly leave the state for months. Goodwin, the state Democratic lawmaker who flew to Chicago on Monday to join her colleagues, said she and her Democratic friends are being sustained by supportive family members and constituents. She said it is unclear what Democrats will do when the Texas special session ends later this month.

“It’s hard to say what will happen,” Goodwin said.