AUSTIN \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday to remove House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu of Houston. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit filed by the governor\u2019s office comes hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> made a similar threat Tuesday afternoon. However, Paxton said he wouldn\u2019t ask courts if lawmakers can be removed until Friday afternoon \u2013 the next time the House is scheduled to convene. <\/p>\n Abbott asked the Supreme Court to rule by Thursday at 5 p.m. <\/p>\n Wu, who is in his first session as the House Democratic chair, is among the more than 50 Democrats who left the state on Sunday<\/a> in an effort to stop the Texas House from passing a redistricting map that would shift five congressional districts in the GOP\u2019s favor. <\/p>\n Political Points<\/p>\n The Democrats left to protest a rare mid-decade redistricting effort that President Donald Trump desired to give Republicans a better chance at keeping control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.<\/p>\n Related:Texas AG Ken Paxton will ask state courts to declare absent House Democratic seats vacant<\/a><\/p>\n In the Tuesday afternoon email announcing the lawsuit, Abbott called Wu the \u201cringleader of the derelict Democrats.\u201d <\/p>\n Wu said in an emailed statement that denying a quorum in the Texas House was \u201cnot an abandonment of my office; it was a fulfillment of my oath. Unable to defend his corrupt agenda on its merits, Greg Abbott now desperately seeks to silence my dissent by removing a duly-elected official from office.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHistory will judge this moment,\u201d Wu said. \u201cIt will show a governor who used the law as a weapon to silence his people, and it will show those of us who stood for a higher principle.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott\u2019s move marks another escalation in a bitter partisan fight that has ensued since Democrats left the state on Sunday to block a partisan gerrymander requested by Trump that could flip as many as five Texas seats in Congress from Democratic to Republican control.<\/p>\n House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, signed civil warrants Monday<\/a> empowering state police to detain Democrats who left the state. Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter on Tuesday to FBI Director Kash Patel<\/a> asking him to investigate House Democrats. <\/p>\n On Tuesday, Burrows adjourned the House until Friday at 9 a.m. after there were not enough lawmakers to establish a quorum for the second-straight day. <\/p>\n With Republicans holding a clear majority in the Texas House, Democrats had few options to prevent the map from passing the legislature. Dozens of Democrats flocked to Chicago, New York and Massachusetts to try and run out the clock on the special session.<\/p>\n Abbott said that the Democrats who have left have shown a willful refusal to return. <\/p>\n \u201cTexas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans, and there must be consequences,\u201d Abbott said in a statement. <\/p>\n In the lawsuit, the governor\u2019s office says that \u201cnothing less\u201d than the future of Texas is at stake and adds that it would have consequences down the line. <\/p>\n \u201cIf representatives are free not to show up whenever they choose, then Texans simply do not have a representative government,\u201d the petition said. \u201cThis Court should make clear that a legislator who does not wish to perform his duties will be stripped of them.\u201d<\/p>\n