{"id":68456,"date":"2025-08-08T20:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68456\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T20:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:58:10","slug":"texas-democrats-head-to-california-as-republicans-warn-of-more-escalations-over-walkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/68456\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Democrats head to California as Republicans warn of more escalations over walkout"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas House of Representatives failed to meet a quorum on Friday for the third time this week as Democratic lawmakers continued their walkout to block a vote on congressional voting maps<\/a> sought by President Donald Trump in a widening national battle over redistricting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republicans had warned they would escalate efforts to end the nearly weeklong holdout if defiant Democrats do not return to the state Capitol. But the Democrats who bolted for points across the country on Aug. 3 still were not back for Friday\u2019s scheduled House floor vote.<\/p>\n

The state constitution requires at least 100 members present for the 150-member House to do business, and Republicans hold an 88-62 majority in the chamber. Only 95 lawmakers were counted as present.<\/p>\n

Frustrated Republican leaders continued to ratchet up the pressure as the walkout persists, including new and expanding efforts to try to remove Democratic lawmakers from office and seeking help from the FBI to assist Texas state troopers trying to find them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all hands on deck, we are continuing to explore\u201d options to force Democrats home, House Speaker Dustin Burrows said after the chamber failed to reach a quorum. \u201cWe will keep pressing forward until the job is done. \u2026 Each one of you knows eventually you will come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House was scheduled to reconvene Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The dozens of Democrats who left the state have shown no signs of buckling for now: A group of them was scheduled to appear later Friday with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a public show of support for the walkout. Newsom has said he will push to redraw his own state\u2019s lines<\/a> in retaliation if Texas reshapes its maps for the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n

Texas has been the epicenter of Trump\u2019s push to gerrymander congressional maps<\/a> to shore up Republicans\u2019 narrow House majority before next year.<\/p>\n

Mounting legal threats<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit directly to the all-Republican state Supreme Court on Friday that seeks to have 13 of the absent Democratic lawmakers immediately removed from office, or at least given a 48-hour warning that they must return or have their offices declared vacated. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues that the lawmakers have effectively \u201cabandoned\u201d their office and duties, and they were singled out for making public statements that they left for the purpose of blocking the vote and disrupting House business. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s lawsuit includes Rep. Gene Wu, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, who also faces a similar lawsuit filed by Gov. Greg Abbott. Wu\u2019s legal team argued that the state constitution allows House members to be removed only by a two-thirds vote of the chamber, not the courts. <\/p>\n

Wu said this week that quorum-breaking is not an abandonment of office but a legitimate form of dissent. <\/p>\n

In a separate filing in state district court, Paxton also sued former U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke, who ran unsuccessfully for governor and Senate, alleging that his political group, Powered by People, improperly gave money to cover costs<\/a> for the absent Democrats and continued to raise more for them.<\/p>\n

Paxton alleged that the fundraising efforts amount to illegal bribery in exchange for violating their duty of office. O\u2019Rourke and his organization did not immediately issue a response to the filing but said earlier in the week that they would be undeterred by Paxton\u2019s threats.<\/p>\n

Republicans pledge ultimate victory<\/p>\n

Abbott promised that he\u2019s willing to play the long game to get the bill passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an agenda to pass priorities critical to Texans, and we will get it done. I\u2019ll call special session after special session\u2014no matter how long it takes\u2014until the job is finished,\u201d Abbott said on the social platform X.<\/p>\n

The current special session ends Aug. 19, and the missing lawmakers already face mounting fines for every day they are gone and civil arrest warrants issued by the state House. <\/p>\n

The widening battle beyond Texas<\/p>\n

Trump wants five more seats out of Texas to potentially avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the U.S. House and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.<\/p>\n

While their minority status allows them only to delay, the Texas holdout has inspired Democrats and progressives around the country.<\/p>\n

Newsom wants Democratic gerrymandering in California<\/a> if Texas proceeds, though voters would have to bypass an independent redistricting commission. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both of whom have appeared alongside Texas Democrats who relocated to their states, have also declared their intent to push new maps if necessary to neutralize Republican maneuvers.<\/p>\n

Republicans are responding as well. In Florida, the state\u2019s Republican House speaker announced this week that his chamber will take up the issue this fall through a select committee on congressional redistricting. <\/p>\n

The dynamics could embroil the 2026 midterm campaign in legislative and court battles testing Trump\u2019s power over the Republican Party, Democrats\u2019 ability to mount opposition and the durability of the U.S. system of federalism that balances power between Washington and the states.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed. Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas House of Representatives failed to meet a quorum on Friday for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,28867,2356,2302,12,49790,1070,2013,49791,793,10062,28861,6590,2221,28859,3,111,12484,1022,1059,8638,795,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-68456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-beto-orourke","tag-california","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-dustin-burrows","tag-elections","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-gene-wu","tag-general-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-ken-paxton","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-redistricting","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}