Texas governor orders arrest of ‘delinquent’ Democrats who fled to block vote
Texas Republicans are moving to arrest a group of legislators who fled the state to restrict the government’s ability to reconfigure electoral boundaries in a manner they say would diminish the voting power of minority groups.
On Monday, Texas State Gov. Greg Abbott accused the defectors of abandoning their duties and breaking the law.
“By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty,” he said in a press release.
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber,” he continued.
“To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans,” he added.
In an additional statement, Abbott said he had ordered Texas Rangers to investigate the “delinquent” House Democrats on “potential violations of state law, including bribery.”
“Reports indicate that many absentee Texas House Democrats have solicited or received funds to evade conducting legislative business and casting votes,” he said.
Democrats who left Texas are beyond the reach of state law enforcement, and their absence means the 150-member legislature can not operate because, without them, it does not meet the minimum number of lawmakers required to function.
Texas’s Republican-controlled state House, therefore, could not hold a scheduled vote on the new district maps on Monday afternoon. The House planned to try again Tuesday, even with no expectation that Democrats would return.
President Trump and Abbott want to redraw the Texas congressional map in the hopes of adding five more Republican seats in Texas in the midterm elections. If they succeed, it would increase the party’s chance of maintaining its slim U.S. House majority, which currently sits at 219-212. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’s 38 seats in the House of Representatives.
With limited power in the state House, Democrats fled the state to delay Trump’s agenda, with many heading for Illinois and New York.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed a group of Democrats as they arrived in Chicago on Friday.
Prizker, one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state, The Associated Press reported. Last week, he publicly hosted a group of Texas Democrats to oppose the redistricting efforts, it added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another outspoken Trump detractor, held a similar event in his state.
Meanwhile, while hosting Texas Democrats in Albany, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of the far-reaching implications of redrawing congressional lines, a process that happens every 10 years in the U.S.
“I have a news flash for Republicans in Texas: This is no longer the Wild West,” Hochul said. “We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law-breaking cowboys, ” she added.
In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, she wrote that the Republicans were attempting to execute “an aggressive power grab designed to flip as many as five current Democratic seats. They’ve carved up diverse communities in Houston, Dallas, and along the border to silence the voters who live there.”
A lawmaker refusing to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules, and they can be fined $500 for every day they aren’t in attendance.
— With files from The Associated Press
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