Texas House fails to establish quorum as dozens of Democrats flee state to block redrawn congressional map.
Democratic state legislators in Texas have blocked a vote on a United States congressional map that favours their Republican rivals by leaving the state, preventing the state House of Representatives from establishing a quorum.
The vote could not proceed on Monday afternoon, even as Republican Governor Greg Abbott threatened to remove the fleeing lawmakers from office and suggested that they could face charges. At least 100 legislators in the 150-member chamber needed to be present for the vote to proceed.
It is not clear when the next vote will be held.
The new redrawn map, backed by President Donald Trump, would give Republicans more safe seats in federal elections.
The contentious but legally permitted move, known as gerrymandering, seeks to help Republicans retain control of the US House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.
Trump has told reporters he expects the effort to yield as many as five additional House Republicans.
According to the Texas Tribune newspaper, the Texas House approved in an 85-to-six vote a mostly symbolic measure to track down and arrest more than 50 legislators who left the state.
The warrants apply only within the state, however, meaning the missing legislators could only be detained on their return.
The controversy in the conservative-leaning state has dominated the political conversation in the country, more than a year in advance of the November 2026 midterm elections.
‘We are at war’
Gerrymandering – redrawing voting districts around demographic and socioeconomic lines for partisan reasons – is not uncommon in the US. But Texas appears to have taken the practice to its limits, all but eliminating five seats held by Democrats.
“We’re not here to play political games. We’re here to demand an end to this corrupt process,” top Texas House Democrat Gene Wu said at a news conference in Illinois on Sunday.
States are required to redistrict every 10 years based on the US Census, but the current Texas map was passed just four years ago by the Republican-dominated legislature. While mid-cycle redistricting occasionally takes place, it is usually prompted by a change in power at the legislature.
Under Texas’s current lines, Republicans control 25 out of 38 seats, nearly two-thirds of the districts in a state that went for Trump last year by a 56 percent to 42 percent margin.
Democratic-led New York and California are now considering redistricting Republican-held areas, although, unlike Texas, they have previously enacted legal constraints against such practices, deeming them undemocratic.
Leaders in those states have signalled they would seek to push through those measures in response to the moves in Texas.
“This is a war. We are at war,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told a news conference on Monday, as she welcomed some Texas legislators to her state.
“That’s why the gloves are off. And I say, bring it on.”
All 435 US House seats are up for election in 2026, with Republicans currently narrowly controlling the chamber by single digits.